by D. Kearney Sparano

Created on: December 16, 2009

If you can’t stand the heat, as they say. If you like to cook there are 2 inevitabilities, 1) you’ll get cut and 2) you’ll get burned. Both are more or less the result of the same thing- distraction. Whenever you are not present, not focused no what you are doing you run the rush of getting hurt. Cooking, in some ways, is a very Zen exercise. At every stage you must be present in what you are doing from prep to plating. This doesn’t mean you have to be completely engrossed to the exclusion of all other things, just mindful of what you are doing, the moment when your mind sarts to drift is when you loose a finger or grab that scalding pan from the oven.

I can instantly recall 2 cases of this happening, not to myself, but to famous individuals. The first I remember reading in the book Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White. It was early on in the book when he was discussing his desire to come out of retirement. This led him to teaching a cooking class for several ladies. In the course of demonstrating he reached into a hot oven to pull out a dish, of course he forgot he wasn’t wearing an oven mitt or had any protection what so ever. What was interesting is how he described his though process. I recall he figured he only had two options, one to drop the dish and risk embarrassment or to take the pain and remove it from the oven. Ever the Michelin Star chef, he took the pain. How, I have no idea. What truly impresses me is that he chose it. If it were me, you’d hear a high pitch squeal and watch my hand jerk back so fast I’d probably slap an onlooker.

Such a display can be seen in the 2007 season of Hell’s Kitchen, the UK version, which coincidentally featured Marco. If you are not aware of this version of the show I’ll quickly catch you up. The premise is simple, celebrities work in a kitchen at a restaurant level. Marco instructs them the day of and that night they work dinner service. Well in one episode of the 2007 season the Irish boxer Finbar “Barry” McGuigan burned himself bad. Again he was reaching into an oven and forgot to wear something to protect his hand. Unlike Marco this resulted in the expected reaction, pulling his hand away at lightning speed, a subtle scream and just an overall look of pain.

My own burn story is something similar. I was making steak au poivre out of Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. (By the way if you want to cook brasserie French I can’t recommend it enough). Anyway the recipe is rudimentary simple. Cover a steak in pepper corns and then pan sear it, no problem. After it is seared you put it into a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes. This is to cook the steak to about medium. Now when I put the pan into the oven it was fine, you know why, because it wasn’t in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. Any way while it is in there I was preparing side dishes. When the 10 minutes were up, like a rube I grab the pan handle bare handed, and this wasn’t a gentle touch, I grabbed it full on. Needless to say, I didn’t pull a Marco, I let go immediately. Then 2 words popped into my head “searing” and “moron.”

Anyway it wasn’t that bad a burn. I needed no medical attention and it left no scar. But like a small child touching a hot stove, I’ve never done it again. Now, I will admit though that while making the pan sauce I am libel to forget how hot the handle is, but I’ve never burned myself on it.

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