patrícia furtado

It was clearly long overdue. I’m a multi-tasking, clumsy and often careless cook, and yet I’d never had a serious accident in the kitchen. Spilled food, broken dishes, small cuts or splatter burns are common, of course. But I had never had anything happen to me that would require any sort of medical assistance.

That is, until last Sunday, when I managed to topple a wok from the stove and splash my left leg with boiling hot olive oil. After a couple of screams that could be heard miles away and almost left my friend deaf, I did the right thing - which, by the way, is immediately placing the burn under cold running water, to lower the temperature and then rushing to the hospital.

Now I’m a proud owner of a knee to ankle burn that looks like it came out of a horror flick, I’m feeding on painkillers, walking with a clutch and really annoyed I won’t be able to go to the beach or wear skirts this summer.

On the bright side, having used up this huge concentration of kitchen bad luck, I think I’ll be accident free for another decade or so.