On va à l'hôpital !

Today we had a British camera crew in today whom worked for an American TV network. Not sure which one. They were here to film the Chef working in the kitchen.

I was cutting tomatoes for personal meal (yay, I get to cook!) - I was making one of my special home-cooked meals - Ropa Vieja. I was getting comfortable with my new knife and started chopping faster.

OOPS! I almost chopped my thumb off ! I looked at my thumb, saw blood forming. Rinsed it. Then saw more blood forming. I had cut through most of my thumb nail and around my thumb. I went to the other kitchen to grab some paper towels to try and stop the bleeding. Well I ended up dripping blood all over the counter top. Max, another stagiaire was like uhhh... come with me.

The directeur of the salle (front of the house) had a huge stash of bandages in his studio. He helped bandage me up a bit. I didn't really want to go to the hospital but he insisted I get it disinfected and dressed properly to avoid infection. Good point.

Thankfully, Nicolas has a car. We went back up to the kitchen to ask him to bring me. The Italian was like "look at the mess you made!" I had dripped a small trail of blood on the floor too. OOPS again.

The salle guy told the chef it was très sérieux and that I needed to go to the hospital... while the camera crew was there. haha !

And off we went. Nice break for my pal Nicolas. (He really deserves a break - he works hard). We waited at the hospital for a good 30 minutes. I had to soak my finger in this disinfectant for 10 minutes. It was throbbing but nothing I couldn't handle. ;) And the lady pricked my other finger to get some blood for a tetanus test. I was good to go. She bandaged me up well and I was on my way. Had to buy some painkillers and more bandages too since we don't really have any at the restaurant.

I returned to work ... why you ask? I DON'T KNOW. Everyone at the hospital as well as front of the house told me not to work. I was working sooo slowww and only with one hand. I couldn't even put pressure on my left hand because it would cause it to throb even more. There were times that my eyes would well up with tears cuz of the throbbing pain. But the painkillers helped a bit.

I took a pretty neat picture of my thumb after it was cleaned but Raf protested against me posting it. It's not that bad (or perhaps I am desensitized to cuts in the kitchen?) but definitely worse than the first time I cut it with my Santoku.

During service, I have to chop apples brunoise, and ciseler mint super thin and both as fast as I can. Um, hardly possible tonight. But yes, I really should not have worked tonight.

I think I am a masochist.