The first cut is the deepest ...

So, it was bound to happen. I've heard stories only spoken at a whisper about cooking show hosts slicing a little to close to home. Some have cut themselves on the first day taping their shows, some during guest appearances on other people's shows and then there's me. I wait until after I've cried wolf a bit. 

It all started a few days before we began to tape. I was in the kitchens with some of my culinary crew and we were discussing the Christian Bale on-set outburst and how even though it was horrible, there was some humor there. Ok, so then somewhere in the discussion we thought it would be a great idea if I tried to pull a Christian Bale while we were taping. We usually have such a cool taping environment, so it would've been fun to play the joke, all I had to do was find something to complain about and blow it out of proportion. Problem is, things are always smooth sailing. Ok, so the few of us agreed to hold the straight face when I decided to "blow up" because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on to the serious thing without support. Plus, my fake blowup would have to be directed at one of them so no feelings would get hurt in the short-term. Ok, so we start taping and like the first day, I was searching for a moment and couldn't pull up the nerve to deliver. Then, the second day I saw my moment and began a teeny tirade that lasted all of 2 seconds long. All it took was a look at one of my co-conspirators for the straight face I needed to go on, he smirked and I lost it. I burst out laughing and we all ended up chuckling it off, like there's no way I can pull it off.

So later that day, on a whim I decided to change the direction of the prank. I had just filmed a few takes of my hand inserting a tray into the oven for close ups. As soon as the director said they got the shot, I decided to pretend the tray was hot, not warm and I'd burned my hand. So here I am wincing in pain on the floor of my set, holding my hand and saying something like "it hurts, it burns!", I took a glance at one of my prank buddies and got the straight face ... just what I needed to pull it off! I yelled, someone toss me some ice or something! Not a second later one of the guys closest to me on the set opened my freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen fruit. He held it out to me and just at the right comedic moment, I swatted the bag out of his hand and said "get that outta heya, I'm fine!". We all chuckled and it was over, or so I thought.

Now it was time for me to call wolf. 

Just a few days later ... I was shooting a montage, so we weren't live to tape, but I was still being taped so they could take portions of the prep and cut it into a sequence. Imagine the entire studio is quiet, about 40 people all listening to the sound of chopping. Cameras focused, a mic dangling over my head catching the ambient sound ... I got through all of the veggies and then moved onto a bunch of cilantro. There I was just chop-chop-choppin' away and then ... I felt it ... something connected to me, was now connected to the knife. My 10"-wide Wustoff hamma landed on my fingerrrrrrr! You'd think if I can carve a mango like this ....

... that there's no way I'd carve into my middle-digit like this ....

Click on the flick for a close up. Doesn't look bad, but that's after the gushing blood. It pooled up in my hand a bit. I actually just stood there a bit looking at it. Like, there it is, I cut myself. It was deep enough to where the skin made a real departure from the other side of the cut and formed a valley ...  a valley of blood! Part of my nail got caught in the battle too. Didn't hurt much really and after convincing the team I wasn't joking this time about the mishap, Marni my wardrobe maven floated in and gave me triage. She had spray bandage and all kinds of tricks. A lil pressure, some spray and tlc from Marni and we were back to work.

Moral of the story? Nursery rhymes and childhood stories with moral should be heeded by the young at heart as well ... I won't be cryin' wolf in the kitchen any more. But it'd still be great to do a fake Christian Bale-tirade imitation :-) j/k.

Back to biz, stick around I have a sweet find in the city of NYC for my locals on the way and some good news!