Kitchen Safety
Todd: Now, Rebecca, we're talking about working in the kitchen. I was a waiter and when I would help out in the kitchen, I was always afraid of the big knives and the fires and the burns and stuff, so can you talk a little about safety and maybe about some injuries you had working in the kitchen?
Rebecca: Yeah, that's really important actually. First there's the uniform. You have to cover as much of you skin as can to avoid burns and if you have a special chef jacket, it must be all cotton so if you get something hot on it, it will still be safe, and it can be quickly taken off, so if you spill something very hot on your clothes, you actually remove the top layer and then you have something underneath, so you can avoid the hot thing being on your skin.
Todd: Well, have you ever been burned, and when you are burned what do you do to your skin to make the burn go away?
Rebecca: Yeah, I've only ever had one bad burn. It was from pork fat and I burnt my arm. I had a horrible blister afterwards, but you have to be careful not to touch the burn or break it. You should of course immediately put in under cold water and then afterwards I use vitamin E oil and that was really good, actually. I don't have a scar because I used that and the skin healed really well.
Todd: What about cuts? I imagine you must have a million cuts from all those big sharp knives. What do you do for that?
Rebecca: Actually, I've never, never cut myself. Never, never. No! Because they teach you when you learn how to shop a way to keep all your fingers out away from the knife and you always have the knife in contact with your hand so you don't need to look at it when you cut. You can feel where the knife is. And no, I've never cut myself.
Todd: That's pretty impressive. Wow! OK, Now, last thing. I guess the only danger I would see in the kitchen is just slipping and falling. The floor is always wet and greasy or whatever. What do you do about that?
Rebecca: You wear really, really heavy boots. I had a huge pair of boots, and of course we clean the floors really carefully. At the end of every shift, you get rid of as much grease as possible and we use non-slip mats, so that helps.
Todd: Cool. Thanks for the safety tips, Rebecca. Thanks.
