As rivers of blood filled the kitchen, I finally decided to go next-door to the pharmacy to see if they could stem the bleeding. Obviously, they told me to go to the nearest hospital as there was nothing that they could do, and there I stood, filling the place with blood. What would you have done in my place? What would a normal person have done? I ended up doing just the opposite, and returned to the kitchen so as not to leave my partner alone. I made a sort of tourniquet, as if it were the jungles of Vietnam, and pressed on with the service. Four hours later I went to the emergency room, to see if they could save my finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the unfortunate Anthony Bourdain once said, there are two types of people in the world: normal people, and chefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s true that the pace of life in big cities like Barcelona is crazy. A few days ago I went with some friends to a rural restaurant in the northern part of Catalonia, and though it was to be expected, what surprised me most was the ritual ceremony of the service, the slowness of the kitchen. We were on holiday, time shouldn\u2019t have mattered and the food was delicious, but the time, the time\u2026 fucking big city life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DOCTORS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doctors, doctors\u2026 people who take care of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m off work today. Right now I\u2019m working as a chef in a chain of nursing homes. Some or other colleague left the handle of a pot over an open flame, which another colleague extinguished without letting anyone else know. Seconds later, of course, I grabbed the handle\u2026 ufffff. I cradled the whole pot with my arm to prevent it from falling on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pain was unbearable, frankly. I had to put my arm into cold water every 30 seconds right the way through the service. After, I headed to the local hospital with a frozen chicken breast in my hand during the subway ride. Not the most bizarre thing ever seen on the Barcelona metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An injury I thought would take a couple of days to fully heal ended up needing a full two weeks of treatment, time off work, hospital visits and everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the doctors, then – thanks for taking care of us. Next time, I probably won\u2019t come to visit you\u2026 because I am a chef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n *Oliver Benet is a Catalan cook and writer of the book “Per qu\u00e8 odiava en Ferran Adri\u00e0?”<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Oliver Benet A cook getting cut or burned doesn\u2019t make the news. In our line of work, it\u2019s an occupational hazard. Just as every…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/democraticgourmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/jRVaoL6y-925x1024.jpg\")
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