I'll give you TWO cooking mistakes, one from my father and one from me.
Father fell asleep cooking pasta. Despite the pot billowing out a column of smoke, the smoke detector going off, and the temperature of the room going up 10 degrees... he snoozed soundly. 12oz of spaghetti noodles turned into a pot shaped black mass that continued to smoke even when I took it to the outside trashcan.
Now for my mistake. Working as a cook at Long John Silvers. Opening with the assistant manager that...well... we'll say had a reputation for bad decisions. You're supposed to turn on the vats except for the right-most one first. This lets the oil melt again and show you if you need to add to the vats to get the correct level. Well, she turned on all four. Once everything melted, we see we need to add a cube of oil (Long John's oil is 50lb solid cubes wrapped in blue plastic and stuck in a cardboard box).
Problem is...that cube needs to be put into a vat already sitting at 400F. I'd done it in the past with no issue, so I didn't think anything about it when she asked me to put a cube in (it's technically the manager's job to do that, but she was busy with other things at the time and again, I'd done before). Grab the cube, rip the cardboard open, set the block on the front lip of the vat, peel the plastic back, gently tip the cube over while using the bag as a handle, flip it on it's top, and skin the plastic off... right? Well, normally, yes... but not this time. Start to tip it over and the plastic ripped. Fifty pound cube drops into 400F oil and splashes up a wall of oil right in front of my face. Both arms covered from wrist to elbow.
I'm so glad I actually wasn't wearing those protective sleeves at the time. With the amount of oil that hit me, it would have actually soaked in and trapped it next to my skin while trying to peel them off. Still... 2nd degree burns over that much area hurts like hell. Worked my full shift despite the burns. Frequently running cold water over your arms and using your lunch to soak your arms in a bucket of ice water does wonders. Managed to walk away without scars as well. What I dealt with for $5.70 an hour...
That there's a workplace violation right there. The fact that the manager didn't send you off to the hospital right away should have gotten her fired and you serious money in compensation.
Yes and no. I chose to continue working my shift because I knew it was unlikely they'd be able to call in one of the other cooks to fill in for me. Though I could have very likely gotten compensation simply because I was harmed doing something against procedure under manager request. Oil level and adding oil are supposed to only be done by the managers.
To be honest, I might be an idiot, but I didn't care that much. Damage was done, assistant manager that I'd known for years already felt like shit... I didn't feel the need to take it further for personal gain.
I'll give you TWO cooking mistakes, one from my father and one from me.
Father fell asleep cooking pasta. Despite the pot billowing out a column of smoke, the smoke detector going off, and the temperature of the room going up 10 degrees... he snoozed soundly. 12oz of spaghetti noodles turned into a pot shaped black mass that continued to smoke even when I took it to the outside trashcan.
Now for my mistake. Working as a cook at Long John Silvers. Opening with the assistant manager that...well... we'll say had a reputation for bad decisions. You're supposed to turn on the vats except for the right-most one first. This lets the oil melt again and show you if you need to add to the vats to get the correct level. Well, she turned on all four. Once everything melted, we see we need to add a cube of oil (Long John's oil is 50lb solid cubes wrapped in blue plastic and stuck in a cardboard box).
Problem is...that cube needs to be put into a vat already sitting at 400F. I'd done it in the past with no issue, so I didn't think anything about it when she asked me to put a cube in (it's technically the manager's job to do that, but she was busy with other things at the time and again, I'd done before). Grab the cube, rip the cardboard open, set the block on the front lip of the vat, peel the plastic back, gently tip the cube over while using the bag as a handle, flip it on it's top, and skin the plastic off... right? Well, normally, yes... but not this time. Start to tip it over and the plastic ripped. Fifty pound cube drops into 400F oil and splashes up a wall of oil right in front of my face. Both arms covered from wrist to elbow.
I'm so glad I actually wasn't wearing those protective sleeves at the time. With the amount of oil that hit me, it would have actually soaked in and trapped it next to my skin while trying to peel them off. Still... 2nd degree burns over that much area hurts like hell. Worked my full shift despite the burns. Frequently running cold water over your arms and using your lunch to soak your arms in a bucket of ice water does wonders. Managed to walk away without scars as well. What I dealt with for $5.70 an hour...
That there's a workplace violation right there. The fact that the manager didn't send you off to the hospital right away should have gotten her fired and you serious money in compensation.
Yes and no. I chose to continue working my shift because I knew it was unlikely they'd be able to call in one of the other cooks to fill in for me. Though I could have very likely gotten compensation simply because I was harmed doing something against procedure under manager request. Oil level and adding oil are supposed to only be done by the managers.
To be honest, I might be an idiot, but I didn't care that much. Damage was done, assistant manager that I'd known for years already felt like shit... I didn't feel the need to take it further for personal gain.
I don't understand the significance of the fourth vat? How does not turning it on help with the situation?
You've got a cold vat to set the cube into, rather than running the risk of splashing up to temperature oil