An explosion that nearly killed a celebrity chef, a sliced finger during a high-stakes competition, and an injury that required surgery — Cooking can be a dangerous business, and these chefs survived difficult injuries while on the job.
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00:00An explosion that nearly killed a celebrity chef, a sliced finger during a high-stakes
00:05competition, and an injury that required surgery.
00:08Cooking can be a dangerous business, and these chefs survived difficult injuries while on
00:12the job.
00:13Scott Conant
00:14Before he became a chopped judge in the Food Network series De Facto Pasta Aficionado,
00:19Scott Conant was known for slinging spaghetti at his Manhattan restaurants, Limpero, Alto,
00:25and Scarpetta.
00:26A packing of three-star reviews meant the chef quickly became a food media darling,
00:31and one year, one of Conant's restaurants hosted a holiday party for food and wine.
00:35While preparing for the event, Conant was manning a huge pot of hot frying oil when
00:39a kitchen mishap struck.
00:41The chef told Business Insider,
00:43"...accidentally I backed into it, and the handle hooked onto my apron.
00:47As I turned around, the whole pot spilled down my leg.
00:50I quickly pulled my pants off right there on the line to stop the burning."
00:53He was left with scars.
00:55And as if the intense physical pain wasn't enough, the whole ordeal was embarrassing
00:59— and, as Conant put it, awkward.
01:02Embarrassing memories, after all, tend to be as punishing and permanent as oil burns.
01:06Giada De Laurentiis
01:07Kitchen injuries are inherently dicey, but what about when they happen under the hotlights
01:11of live television?
01:13Giada De Laurentiis made a name for herself on the Food Network beginning in 2003, hosting
01:18cooking shows like Everyday Italian and Giada at Home.
01:21So I want to show you my Italy, so let's go, andiamo!"
01:24She also became a fixture of the network's live specials, including a 2013 Thanksgiving
01:29special featuring Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and Alton Brown.
01:33While preparing a turkey porchetta dish, the TV personality sliced open her finger, and
01:38she leaned over to Garten and told her what happened.
01:40De Laurentiis told Today,
01:41"...I think everybody kind of freaked out.
01:44We don't do live television usually on Food Network.
01:46These things usually just get hidden."
01:48De Laurentiis managed to sneak off during a commercial break to get medical attention,
01:52ultimately receiving a few stitches.
01:54De Laurentiis' colleague managed to squeeze in some gentle ribbing, with Brown joking
01:58on Twitter that they found her finger in the stuffing.
02:00In the kitchen, fingers and hands are the most injury-prone appendages when it comes
02:05to knife cuts.
02:06In the case of Bon Appetit and Epicurious, food director Chris Morocco, feet can be just
02:11as vulnerable.
02:12The cook shared an anecdote with Bon Appetit in which he was cooking dinner at his apartment
02:16in Brooklyn, telling the publication,
02:18"...I was cooking barefoot and managed to knock the food processor blade off of the
02:23counter.
02:24It fell perfectly right on the top of my foot and opened up a wide gash because of the serration
02:28and gravity.
02:29It just penetrated."
02:30Morocco wasn't sure whether the wound required an ER visit, so he texted a picture to his
02:34surgeon brother-in-law, who insisted on dressing the wound himself.
02:38Morocco hopped in a cab to his brother-in-law's apartment, where he promptly received a tetanus
02:42shot, stitches, and painkillers.
02:45These days, Matty Matheson is perhaps best known for playing Neil Fack on The Bear, but
02:50fans of his wildly popular YouTube channel are well aware of the chef's culinary prowess
02:54and brash on-screen persona.
02:56"...spaghetti carbonara!"
02:57It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the rough-and-tumble Matheson has more than a
03:03few kitchen mishaps under his belt, several of which occurred while he was the executive
03:07chef at Toronto's Parts & Labour.
03:09Two weeks before the restaurant opened in 2010, Matheson was prepping a staff meal of
03:14egg salad sandwiches.
03:15As he was draining the pot of boiled eggs, hot water cascaded down his leg, into his
03:20boot.
03:21Matheson ripped off his boot and wool sock, accidentally tearing off some skin as well.
03:25The chef soaked his foot in ice water and went back to work.
03:28When he sought medical attention after service, the doctor informed him that he had third-degree
03:33burns.
03:34During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Matheson shared what he said to the doctor.
03:37"...I just had to keep going here for a bit, because it was just like, you know, people
03:40need salads."
03:41"...the eggs had the…"
03:42Sometimes a kitchen mishap can occur outside of the constraints of an actual kitchen, too.
03:47In Matheson's case, an outdoor wedding sufficed.
03:50The chef was tasked with manning the grill, but after too much wedding fun and sun, he
03:54cranked the gas and didn't light the fire.
03:57One lit cigarette was enough to create a fireball, knocking the chef off his feet and singeing
04:02his eyebrows.
04:04Compared to a restaurant kitchen, the on-set kitchens of Rachael Ray and 30 Minute Meals
04:07were efficient, even placid settings.
04:10Rachael, the longtime TV personality, insists that burns and scrapes are inevitable, no
04:14matter the environment.
04:16In one instance, Ray managed to cut herself when she wasn't actually handling food.
04:20Ray, known for her bubbly on-air persona, managed to clip her finger with her knife
04:25while she was animatedly gesticulating, for Ray kitchen mishaps are integral to her rise
04:29to fame.
04:30At the beginning of her television career, the cook shot a pilot on Emeril Lagasse's
04:34set.
04:35She was so nervous, she didn't notice how hot the pan had gotten when she added oil
04:39to it, resulting in a plume of flames in the studio.
04:42It's just one of the laws of averages when you work around flames and sharp objects your
04:48whole life."
04:50Nowadays, Curtis Stone knows his way around a kitchen, thanks to his multiple Michelin-starred
04:55restaurants and stints on shows like Crime Scene Kitchen and Top Chef Masters.
04:59But when the Aussie chef was an up-and-comer in London, he learned the hard way that some
05:03appliances require some more know-how than others.
05:07In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Stone recalled the time he accidentally set fire
05:11to a restaurant called Bluebird in London.
05:13During his first week on the job as Bluebird's new executive chef, Stone wanted to revive
05:17the kitchen's stately wood-fire oven that had not been touched in a few years.
05:22In an effort to show off the oven's capabilities, Stone hosted his sister and a group of her
05:26friends for a lavish meal.
05:28Stone cranked the heat, but as the night went on, he noticed plumes of smoke beginning to
05:31build in the back room.
05:33And thanks to a window looking into the kitchen, the restaurant patrons did as well.
05:37When it was clear that the kitchen's fire extinguisher wouldn't get the job done, Stone
05:40rang the fire department.
05:42The guests were fine, but Stone was mostly embarrassed that he had almost destroyed a
05:46priceless building.
05:48Stone recalled,
05:49"'This AAA-rated heritage building was literally on fire.
05:52And thank God we put it out, but that was a pretty big disaster.'"
05:56No disrespect to the knife, but a chef's most formidable adversary might be the humble mandolin.
06:02This underrated tool, used to produce uniform, impossibly thin slices of foodstuffs, is public
06:08enemy number one for chefs' fingers.
06:10Alex Guarnaschelli learned the hard way that mixing mandolins with reality TV can be especially
06:15dangerous.
06:16Guarnaschelli is no stranger to the high-pressure environment of competitive cooking shows,
06:20having been a regular fixture on Chopped and Iron Chef America.
06:24On her most recent series, Alex vs. America, the chef tangoed with a mandolin, slicing
06:29off the tip of her finger while cunning sun chokes.
06:32"'Ow!
06:33And oop!
06:34I nicked my finger.
06:35I cut myself."
06:36Like a true competitor, Guarnaschelli was more concerned about the ongoing battle than
06:40her finger.
06:41She recalled to People magazine,
06:42"'So the producer is saying to me, what do we do here?
06:44How do we handle this?
06:45Because this show is called Alex vs. America and you're at the sink trying to stop yourself
06:50from bleeding.
06:51So I said, let the clock go, let her run.
06:53And I just waited and waited.
06:54I was cursing and I was mad and I was embarrassed."
06:58Guarnaschelli took five minutes to get her finger bandaged before getting back in the
07:02game, though she admits her fingertip isn't quite round anymore.
07:05She continued,
07:06"'That little mandolin plays you like a mandolin.'"
07:09Born in the Philippines and raised in the South Bronx, Harold Villarosa has worked everywhere
07:14from McDonald's to Bon Appetit to Michelin-starred kitchens.
07:17His main, safety tip?
07:19He told Bon Appetit,
07:20"'You gotta be aware of the other people in your kitchen.
07:22Say behind, say corner, say hot.'"
07:24Villarosa learned that lesson the hard way.
07:27When an employee left a sheet tray on top of a double-stacked oven, unbeknownst to Villarosa,
07:32the tray was full of hot bacon fat.
07:33When the chef angrily removed the tray, the hot oil poured down his arm.
07:37Within 30 seconds, his skin began bubbling up.
07:40Eager to get back to work, Villarosa skirted conventional medical wisdom.
07:44He said he popped the bubbles with his knife and ripped off the excess skin, adding,
07:48"'And then I put the ointment on that, wrapped it up in saran wrap, and then I went and worked
07:53service.'"
07:54Villarosa immediately fired the chef who left the tray in such a compromising position.
07:58Still, his insistence on getting back to work is a familiar line among stressed chefs.
08:04With fryer fires and third-degree burns to worry about, it is easy for some chefs to
08:09shrug off seemingly small knife cuts.
08:11Chef Leah Cohen did exactly that and paid the price.
08:14Cohen is known for her appearances on Season 5 of Top Chef, Chopped, and Beat Bobby Flay.
08:19One day while working at a reclaimed restaurant Pig & Cow in Manhattan, the chef was cutting
08:23up sirloin and accidentally nicked her thumb.
08:26She rushed to the ER and got five stitches.
08:28A week later, when the stitches were ready to come out, Cohen still couldn't bend her
08:32thumb.
08:33Another week passed, and Cohen still had trouble moving her thumb.
08:35She told Business Insider,
08:36"'A specialist confirmed I had cut the tendon in my thumb and had to have surgery.
08:40I wore a cast for five weeks and then had to do physical therapy for two months, all
08:45from that one cut.'"
08:47Known for his love of fermentation and kitchen hijinks, Brad Leone made a name for himself
08:52as Bon Appetit's goofball test kitchen manager-turned-YouTube star.
08:56The YouTube series It's Alive saw Leone show off his kitchen chops making sourdough bread
09:01and sauerkraut.
09:02Leone admitted that more of his cooking injuries happened during outdoor excursions than they
09:06did in the kitchen, citing one camping episode in particular.
09:09While cooking breakfast over a campfire, Leone went to work slicing potatoes with the dreaded
09:13mandolin.
09:14He told Bon Appetit,
09:15"'I was just on autopilot, going and going and going.
09:18All of a sudden there was a quarter-inch coin to Brad's fingertip in the potato.
09:22Blood everywhere.'"
09:23In cooking and show business alike, the show must go on, and the It's Alive crew jumped
09:28into action to ensure their shoot could continue, suiting up Leone in a makeshift bandage of
09:33newspaper and electrical tape.
09:34Two hours later, through considerable throbbing and pain on Leone's end, they wrapped up the
09:39episode.
09:41Ralph Pagano has found success as a television personality, appearing on shows like Hell's
09:45Kitchen, Pressure Cook, and Iron Chef America.
09:48He's also known for the large culinary footprint he has left on the state of Florida.
09:51The chef owns a number of restaurants around the Sunshine State, including his Naked Taco
09:55Chain.
09:56Pagano was set on expanding his empire when disaster struck.
09:59While Pagano was test-running the gas burners at a new restaurant in Bimini, Bahamas, they
10:04exploded with the chef standing squarely in the blast.
10:07Pagano suffered second- and third-degree burns on nearly 40 percent of his body.
10:11He was hospitalized for 50 days, and underwent a number of skin grafts and surgeries.
10:16For Pagano, the 2017 accident gave him a new lease on life.
10:21He told the Miami New Times,
10:23"...my life has turned positive with what people consider a negative thing.
10:26For lack of a better word, that was a wake-up call for me.
10:29My wife and the kids are my life.
10:31Everything else takes a backseat."