Cuts
Lesson # 1: Never let your mind wander when you are holding a knife
On one of the first days in practical, one of my friends was putting her chef's knife back into a cardboard protector at the end of class. We were all chatting and she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. The knife pierced the cardboard...and her hand.
Lesson # 2: Learn how to chop properly
Do not try to mimic TV chefs when they mirepoix, julienne, brunoise, and mince their ingredients almost without looking. What they're doing is correct, but the idea of moving a knife that fast as a beginner is a *bad* idea. Instead, go slowly and learn correct knife technique. Despite looking at several "knife skills" videos from the food network, the only good website that I've found describing this technique is this: Learn how to use a knife. If you don't have time to look at the entire page, scroll down about 1/4 of the way down and look how the chef is holding the knife and food- he holds the knife close to (even on) the start of the blade, and keeps the fingers on the hand that stabilizes the food bent inward (like a claw) using the area between his first and second knuckles to guide the blade. This guarantees that no fingers get chopped off, but does not guarantee that you won't chop your knuckle..(I'll fess up to doing this once)...so go slowly.
Also...a sharp knife is important. The cleaver is the least sharp of all knives, but its the scariest because you're using so much force with it. If you have a sharp knife, there is less reason to use force and less chance of cutting yourself.
Human blood is not a good ingredient in any recipe so at Cordon Bleu (and most restaurants), if you cut yourself, you first put on a band aid...and then a finger condom. They're not actually officially called condoms, but they really are miniature versions of a condom. You put it on the top of your finger and then roll the rubber down to the base of your finger. This keeps any blood or antiseptic inside the rubber, and protects the finger from raw ingredients that could possibly cause an infection and from water that could cause the band aid to slip.
Burns
Burns are scarier than cuts. They hurt for much longer and unlike cuts, which are fairly easy to avoid, burns can happen much easier.
Lesson #1 learned (I'm owning up to it): Never stick your hand in boiling water. Ever.
What part of my brain didn't comprehend that sticking my hand into the pan of boiling water to check if the veggies were done would be a bad idea I don't know. My reflex time wasn't too bad and I pulled my fingers out just after the water had reached midway between my first and second knuckle. (See picture) I was also (thankfully) still able to complete the rest of the practical without too much pain, but the pain for the rest of the day hopefully will serve as a reminder never to do it again.
Learning by mistake is not a particularly nice way to learn, but it is very effective.
Lesson #2 Learned: If a pan is hot, you tie a paper towel around the handle.
One of the things we often do at Cordon Bleu is take meat/chicken etc. brown it quickly on the stove and then move the pan directly into the oven. (Home Chefs: this only works if the pan does not have a plastic handle!!) When we take the pan out of the oven, the entire pan is hot and touching the handle is a bad idea. Brain not functioning #2: a few lessons ago I touched the handle. My burn was worse than what I had when I stuck my fingers into water, but because of the way I reached to grab the pan, my burn was localized to a small area on my middle finger. My friend in another class was not so lucky. She reached in with her entire hand and branded her palm. You could actually see the letters of the pan on her hand.
The reason burns can be unavoidable is that I might have pulled a pan out of the oven, so I know that its hot, but the other chef who may want to move my pan does not know that, and burns herself when reaching for my pan. The way to prevent this is by tying a small paper towel around the handle of the pan. This doesn't act as an oven mitt, but does alert everyone around that this pan is HOT. Since I burned myself, I've been pretty vigilant to do this always and it has reminded me several times to use my kitchen towel when reaching for the pan. NOTE: be *very* careful doing this if you have a gas range! We have electric ranges and so the paper doesn't catch on fire as easily. But if you do this on a gas range, make sure to tie the paper tightly and rip off the loose ends.
Be careful!!
Daria
P.S. Check out updates to "Little piggies went to the market" to see updated pictures from that day.
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