Kitchen mishaps can leave a lasting mark

February 18, 2023 by
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If you cook often enough, you are going to have a kitchen injury. Knives, mandolines, hot oven racks, boiling liquids – all are potentially dangerous and most cooks have a scar or two that tells a tale of kitchen woe. So too does The Guardian’s Jay Rayner, who writes that “Making dinner means dicing with danger.”

While not exactly proud of the various small scars from cuts and burns that he has received over the years, Rayner does look on them with a sort of fondness. “They are my life in the kitchen, written on the body, the physical marks of someone who has diced vegetables and chopped onions, fretted over stock pots and poked at roasts, tasted sauces, deep fried and charred and blitzed,” he says.

I’ve had my share of cooking injuries, and I carry a few minor scars: one at the base of my thumb where a mandoline exacted its revenge, a few faded strips on my forearms from touching the side or top of the oven while maneuvering sheet pans, and a fresh scrape on my thumb, the origins of which remain a mystery other than it happened during dinner prep. These are overshadowed by the injuries that didn’t leave a mark, like singed eyebrows and various nicks that healed without a scar.

While I don’t look at the lasting reminders of these cuts and burns with pride, like Rayner I find them to be distinguished vestiges of my love for kitchen craft. Although I try to be careful, I know that I’m likely to endure a few more before I hang up my apron, but this doesn’t daunt me. A few small bruises are the price I am willing to pay for the satisfaction I receive from cooking and baking.

Category: Antipasto

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5 Comments

  • thegluttery  on  February 18, 2023

    On the other hand, I take distinct pride in the fact that the equipment in my kitchen shows definite signs of wear. Scratches on cutting boards, discoloration on Dutch Oven enamel or stainless steel pots and pans, stains on kitchen towels that just won’t come out…you name it. It all serves as a reminder that those items see daily use and I love that.

  • rosajane8  on  February 19, 2023

    I have a scar from making the caramel for a caramel and banana galette…one of the best things I ever made ? But dang that hot sugar burns!!!! I never did that before and first thing I did was run it under cold water…that wasn’t too smart ??‍♀️? They should have what to do if you get it on you at the beginning of every recipe for caramel ?

  • CapeCodCook  on  February 20, 2023

    Oh the cuts and burns and scars from a happy lifetime of cooking and baking—I look upon them not exactly with fondness, but as badges of honor. I note that the contestant-bakers on The Great British Baking Show sometimes sport brightly-colored band-aids on their fingers and thumbs. They add a sense of authenticity to the episode!

  • TeresaRenee  on  February 21, 2023

    No scars from my encounter with extra goopy cinnamon rolls but it blistered my thumb instantly.

    I do have a small scar on my index finger that I got from the dull side of a cleaver – not the cutting edge, the opposite side. Not sure why that edge is so sharp but it was a painful deep cut.

  • averythingcooks  on  February 21, 2023

    Christmas 2020….received a beautiful set of very sharp Dalstrong kitchen knives.
    Birthday 3 weeks (and a few pretty good cuts) later…received a cut resistant glove!

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