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In the home, the kitchen is generally considered the most dangerous room in the house, and in most cases this is the truth. As a professional chef I have come to know the dangers of the kitchen very well through training, practice and observation. I understand that a commercial kitchen is vastly different than a kitchen in your home, but many of the safety practices that we use at my work, are also very much worth while to adapt to your home.

In this article I intend to go over the basic safety practices used both in my home and in the kitchen I work in.

Knife Safety:

1) When using a knife it is best to never let the tip of the blade leave your cutting board. This allows you to always know where the blade is going to cut, giving you better control over the blade.

2) The handle of a knife is more for balance than gripping. Hold the knife blade with your thumb and fore-finger, with your other three fingers wrapped around the handle. This will prevent the blade from wobbling in your grip, and again will give you better control.

3) When walking with a knife, grip the blade as stated above, and keep it at your side point down. If you are walking past another person while holding the knife, always let them know you are there and have a knife. At work we say "Crossing Knife" or "Behind Knife".

4) Remember at all times, knives are sharp, and will cut you just as well as the cut the food your are working with. It is best to keep them away from irresponsible people, be it a child, teen, or adult, and to keep your fingers tips away from the blade at all times.

Cooking Safety:

1) If you think a surface or food item/container could be hot, never touch it with your bare skin. They made hot mitts, tongs, flippers, and long handled scoops for a reason, and that is to limit the chances of burning yourself to a minimum.

2) When cooking with oil, always have a lid close at hand. Oil can splatter, and burn while cooking, and has a higher chance of catching on fire. A lid can prevent burns, and contain fires easily. Baking soda is also a very good fire suppressant, but never use water on a grease fire. It only makes thing worse.

3) Cook foods completely. People can get really sick if you don't.

4) If it touches the floor, it is garbage. It doesn't mater for how long, it is still the same as eating off the bottom of your shoes

5) Keep all surfaces that your food or equipment touches clean. People can get really sick if you don't

Storage safety:

1) Make sure heavy and sharp objects are secure, away from counter edges, and away from irresponsible people. If they fall, or get in the wrong hands people are more likely to get hurt.

2) Keep all toxic or powerful cleaning chemicals locked up away from food. They kill germs, but they can also kill you.

3) Make sure all foods are kept at appropriate temperature or are properly preserved. Germs grow most readily between 4.4 and 60 degrees Celsius, or 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit if you are in the USA.

4) Try to keep dry goods safe from rodents and other vermin by keeping then in glass, metal or plastic containers. Keeping pests out of your food prevents sickness.

These are the basics of kitchen safety. There are always more things you can do to keep people safe in a kitchen, but it would be far too many thing cover in a single article. I hope you find my safety instructions helpful. So that's all I have for now, and I Hope you have a safe time cooking.

Learn more about this author, Adam Rogers.
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