Every Chef, in fact I am sure every home cook, to some degree, has experienced the following. I can tell you that you say it is only going to happen once but sometimes you are operating on autopilot (which is both a good and bad thing in the Chef world). The following is the story of my seared flesh and the very real pain that comes from it.
Six pans, I had six pans on the go when I had to run to the fridge in order to get something to fulfill an order. I had three orders of Chicken Penne working on the front burner on a medium to high heat. Running again to the fridge I came back to my pans and realized that I had to jolt the chicken to prevent it from burning. With the items I grabbed from the fridge in one hand I placed my other hand on the pan with the chicken in it and immediately heard that sound all to familiar to Chefs the world over; “sssssssssssssssssssssssss” which is immediately followed by a “Damn it” as I snap my hand back. I look down at the offending hand and see the skin tattooed with the indent of the pan handle on my hand. I look at it for a moment as I curse myself for being so careless as to not have a rag in my hand to toss my pan.
For a moment the searing flesh rings inside your mind as if you have been punched in the throat, head butted and kicked in the nuts all at the same time. If your brave (read stupid) enough to try to sear a pan into your hand sometime you will know that the preceding description is the best possible. Without missing a beat I turned around and grabbed my offending rag (I say offending because it should have warned me with its very existence on my cutting board that I needed it) and tossed the pan. As I plated the offending Penne’s. Three in all. I let out a blood curdling “FUUUUUUUUCCCCCK.” Chef looked at me and asked if I was alright to which I responded that I was fine but was beyond missed off that I had made such a rookie mistake.
It was at this point that my seared flesh started to paint itself on my conscience. I was beyond aware of the pain but found myself working through it. It sucked. As I type this now I just looked down on my hand and saw that although this happened only a few days ago I still bear that ringlet from the pan handle perfectly on my hand. Oh well, a new lifeline as the case was.
When I left work that night I found myself considering how I had let this incident happen. I listed my mistakes and what I could have done differently and came to realize that this is just another stepping stone on the journey that I am on and in as much as it can be avoided. In reality, IT CAN’T BE AVOIDED. I play with fire every day and by doing so that the reality is that some days I am going to get burned. The name of the game then becomes how to prevent it as best as possible. RAG IN HAND AT ALL TIMES as my first Chef had told me is how.
At any rate, we live and we learn. We cut and we burn. All in all it is a valuable experience. Pain is a great teacher. Pleasure is the result as I realize that I am living my dream and that the dream is complete with cuts, burns and scratches. Life goes on.
Lance Armstrong once said; “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”
How true!
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
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