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The daft, funny and outright dangerouse things that go on in a kitchen...
Honest it did happen!
This is a story of a young gullible apprentice chef who made spun sugar but did not set out to do it in the first place.I was on duty in the main kitchen and as the Head Chef and the Sous Chef were not present at the time I was temporarily in charge. I have a sweet tooth and often visited the pastry section where the pastry chef would allow fellow chefs and I to eat any scrap bits and broken pastry goods. Today was no different and so I headed in to the pastry section for some goodies.
It was the pastry chefs day off and a young female chef was standing in for her. The young girl in question was making caramel for 'Creme Caramels' As explained above to make caramel you have to boil sugar and water to a very high temperature. This she had just done and was in the process of preparing to pour the caramel into the moulds. At the same time as this our gullible apprentice chef was asking her some pretty dumb questions as he was attempting to chat her up in the hope that he would impress and somehow loosen her underwear.
The young apprentice chef was one of many people that came to where I work and they are sent by their catering colleges for 6 months to gain working experience in a kitchen. He was not the 'sharpest tool in the box' but was a very funny and bubbly out going person who was always messing around and doing daft things. Before he came to us he used to work for a very big nuclear plant that was very near to his home town and catering college. He told us he got the sack from his job and decided to try his hand a catering. Oops.
So the scene is set. The gullible chef is trying to impress the pastry chef when he asks her what she is doing? She replay's "I am making caramel" He says "whats that taste like" as he has never tasted or seen it made before. She says "why don't you taste it and find out for yourself". Just as she said that I am entering the pastry and I overheard what she said. What happened next was at the time one of the most funniest things I had ever seen although the most stupid and dangerous thing to do.
The young lad in question then stuck his thumb in his mouth (health and safety would have thrown a wobbler had they seen that) and then dipped his thumb into the caramel mix in the pan. I have now entered the pastry and see the young lad 'grinning like a Cheshire cat' dip his thumb into the caramel mix. It happened in a split second but it was like watching in slow motion and I could not shout out a warning fast enough to stop him. He dipped his thumb into the caramel and the smile on his face change rapidly to a look of horror as the pain that shot through his thumb registered in his brain.
He pulled his thumb out of the mix and in an attempt to try and shake off the caramel that was stuck to his thumb and he was waving his hand madly in the air and at the same time screaming like pig. The pastry chef started laughing at the young lad and his efforts to cool down the sugar. As he tried desperately to stop the pain by waving his hand about the in the air he inadvertently started to produce spun sugar and you could see wafer thin strands forming about his head. This all happened in a slit second and he then stuck his burning thumb with the caramel still on it in his mouth.
Talk about "out of the pan and into the fire'. He now is frantically trying to cool down his thumb by sucking on it and proceeds to burn his mouth and tongue at the same time. This also leads to another fit of screaming and more chuckles of laughter from the young girl who finds it all amusing. After overcoming my initial shock to the events that had just taken place I dashed over to the lad, grabbed him and dragged him to a nearby sink and after wetting a kitchen cloth with cold water I wrapped it around his hand and thumb. I filled a cup with water and made him fill his mouth and hold the water in place in an attempt to cool down his mouth and tongue. I also detailed a comis chef to get a bucket of ice.
Meanwhile a crowd has gathered and many of them also think it is very funny and are laughing at the young lad for his stupidity. As I tended to the young lad I saw his thumb blister and pop and then another blister appear. He was in agony but at the same he was laughing and grinning through clenched teeth. I too was laughing and grinning but at the same time thinking what the heck to do and should I report this to management. With the arrival of ice and the blisters on his thumb not bursting anymore I placed his hand in a bath of iced water and made him hold his hand under water for at least 10 minutes.
When working in kitchens you get use to dealings with burns and due to quick reactions, a bit of luck, loads if ice and the fact that for some reason the lad in question stuck his thumb into his mouth before he put it in the boiling sugar I managed to treat him and with the aid of another chef we sent him to the local hospital. I then gave the young pastry a girl a bollocking of monumental proportions that can't be repeated here but let me tell you it involved loads of cursing and some very rude swear words of a sexual connotation.
I put a report in the accident book and later when the Head Chef came on duty I reported it to him. He just smiled, laughed and to quote Arthur Lowe who plays Captain Mannering in 'Dads Army' he said "Stupid Boy" and wandered off. The young lad came back from the hospital after his hand and thumb was treated and was given the night off. Besides the pain of his burn the lad was very lucky and after awhile the his hand and thumb healed and there was no lasting injury or disfigurement.
The young lad was not easily put off from being a 'happily go lucky if very daft person' attitude and was still laughing and grinning later that night as he told other members of staff about his injury whilst at the same time drinking loads of lager and chewing paracetamol to kill the pain. The next day when he finally arrived for work looking the worse for wear and suffering from a huge hangover he said "I don't know what hurts more - the burn or my head" I knew which one I preferred if had to make a choice.
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