Well to most people there are no similarities between Halloween and a commercial Hobart meat slicer. That is until my story comes in with one of my most vivid memories that could have been worse, I assume.
Many Years Ago
When I was 16 years old and working on a Halloween night, I was working at a local restaurant with basically the title of Kitchen Help. Originally, I had started out as a dishwasher and they were grooming me to go on the line as a cook. They did not have a chef there because it was basically a set menu. The food was either cooked on a charcoal grill or deep fryer. A job was given to me that evening by the kitchen manager to clean the meat slicer. It was a job I had never done it before and I was a little hesitant for sure. There were no wall charts or training guides as you might see today, and Kevlar gloves were not invented yet. So I decided to just try my best since my supervisor was not one to be bothered by asking questions.
I am not going to go through the vivid details of what happened next however will say I learned a new respect for a piece of equipment that can seriously hurt you. If YouTube or Tik Tok were around then I am sure someone would have caught this act of my stupidity on camera. I am also sure it would have gone viral for such a nerd near the commercial meat slicer.
The Hobart Meat Slicer
I can tell you that when the blade of the slicer severed the tip of my thumb off, it did not hurt at all. My reaction was to just stand there in disbelief as I saw the blood starting to come out. It felt like a couple of minutes and did not say a thing. The white chef coat which I had borrowed earlier was slowly starting to show the color of red from the blood. It was quiet around me as well until another employee saw the blood and screamed out for help. One cook passed the useless kitchen supervisor and went directly and got the owner.
The owner who was an older woman was the one who had the most compassion for me. She then instructed a waitress who had the least number of customers to drive me to the local hospital immediately. It was the first time I had even been to an Emergency Room without my parents, and I was now more than scared. Of course, this was before cell phones otherwise I would have reached out to them.
Hospital Visit alone without parents
For it being Halloween night, it seemed extremely busy as I remember. Of course, since I was in a white chef coat with blood all over, most people just thought I was in costume for Halloween.
When the doctor came in and attended to me, he was laughing because he told me that Halloween night is the busiest day of the year for cutting fingers; however, most are men trying to cut pumpkins and then things start going bad.
I survived, stitched up, and had a condom put on my thumb so that I could go back and finish my shift. To this day I feel sorrier for the waitress who lost an evening’s worth of tips, and away from her kids for Halloween and all I lost was a little part of my thumb.
Suggestions
Now, most of my writings have included steps and suggestions on things to do so that you can properly clean and take care of your establishment.
Today it shall be different as I tell you how NOT to do something.
How NOT to Clean a Meat Slicer?
- Always have someone under the age of eighteen clean the meat slicer! Unlike 50 years ago laws are stating you no longer can do that.
- Always leave the slicer plugged in while cleaning. Don’t worry off buttons never get bumped
- Leave the depth guide open to the last setting. Taking it down to level ZERO makes no sense at all.
- Pick the nearest chemical nearby so that you do not need to waste energy looking for the correct one.
- Don’t Wear Gloves-
Sorry, I cannot finish this blog like this. In the future, as with many other pieces of equipment, use some common sense and contact the manufacturer of equipment and your chemical specialist to help with producing proper procedures for you and your employees.
A great video I found since then is this Prevent Meat Slicing Accidents
Summary
This Halloween please stay safe, and if you enjoyed my story please comment and share. Also, be on the watch list of my new podcast by sending me an email at jerry@hospitalitycleaning101.com. We might ask you to be a guest.