Diary of The Food Whore: Complete Latex Hysteria

« Just A Little FYI | Main | Of The Devil »

Complete Latex Hysteria

August 12, 2005

We have more latex gloves in our catering stash than the average Hospital. It's just part of the deal - you work with food, you wear latex. Well, you're supposed to, anyway.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I change my gloves during a Trick. Theoretically speaking - one pair would last the entire night. But when I am on the floor speaking with people, I don't like to have them on. So off they go. And then a new pair gets put on for more working. And then off. And then on. And the kicker is, I don't always throw them away. On any given night I come home with 3 or 4 pair of used gloves in my pocket. And I don't know why I don't think to throw them out. It's just a habit - and one I don't plan on changing any time soon.

And here's why.

The other night I was washing up prep dishes before a trick. Someone had come in and thrown a dirty wine glass in the sink - without my knowing it - and in the process of it getting thrown, it broke. So when I plunged my hands into the sink, my wrist was met with a large shard of glass. And it plunged deep enough into my wrist that when I pulled it out of the sink, the piece of glass was still embedded.

It hurt like a sonofabitch, too. But I was lucky - no major veins were hit, but the bleeding was bad. Well, bad enough for a band-aid. I get a bit dramatic when it comes to seeing my own blood. It wasn't like blood was spurting all over the place. Though that is the story I tell people, just for added effect. And it always gains more sympathy.

Anyway.

I grabbed a towel and applied pressure. The Partner got our emergency kit and dug out a couple of band-aids and other items to get it all doctored up. It was situated just below the palm of my hand so a latex glove covered the band-aid nicely, which helped to keep it dry and helped to keep it out of the way of further prep.

So the night went on and I changed my gloves one more time before service. Only this time the bleeding had stopped so I skipped the band-aid and went with gloves, only.

Only I forgot the part about skipping the band-aid, so after we had salads plated I looked down to notice the band-aid was gone. And I thought it was now on someones plate. And I panicked. The Partner panicked. The Staff Panicked. We were all in secret hysteria over a band-aid that I was certain had been embedded in the field greens.

We had to hold back salad service until we had enough time to check each plate because I just new someone was going to get a bloody band-aid. And that thought nearly put me into the throes of a full-blown panic attack.

I had to sit in a chair to regain my composure while the rest of the people in the room searched the back-up salad and anything I had recently touched. Including the butter sauce for the salmon, the trays of roasted asparagus and the pilaf. "It's over", I said. "Our reputation is over. Shot. And I ruined it. Someone is going to get that band-aid and like that - POOF - we're through!"

The Partner sighed and told me to stop being so dramatic. "Oh calm down. We will find it. Just sit here and rethink your steps before I have to slap you." They say she's the nice one - people don't have a clue.

As I was sitting there, head in my hands, I had the wherewith all to check my pockets. And sure enough. There in my right apron pocket were two gloves - one with that damned bloody band-aid. "Oh.", I said sheepishly. "Um. Here it is. Ok! Let's serve those salads!"

Relief, regret, foolishness - all emotions I was feeling. All while getting that "look" from everyone in the kitchen.

But better that than getting called someones table. The thought of someone biting down on that band-aid made me gag.

It makes me gag just thinking about it, now.

Posted by Foodwhore at August 12, 2005 11:21 AM

You could have served it as the Bloody Bandaid Salad Surpise. The one lucky diner would be the winner of a ... spoon or something.

Biggles

Posted by: Dr. Biggles at August 12, 2005 12:39 PM

egads... don't let it get infected. And smack the hell out of whoever put the glass in the sink!!

Posted by: Carly at August 12, 2005 02:21 PM

LOL to Dr. Biggles comment.

Posted by: Kristin at August 12, 2005 02:48 PM

Wow...when I've volunteered at places with food, we've used gloves, but when I was younger, I worked for the worst caterer ever and never once touched a glove. I used to mix waldorf salad and sweet and sour sauce with my bare hands (and being all of 13, I didn't know that I should take off my little friendship bracelets before doing so, so lots of fabricky germs were included with my dead skin and such).

The woman's kitchen was disgusting though. She did it out of a kitchen she'd had built onto her house, and after each weekend, she'd apparently just leave everything sitting there until the next weekend. So we'd arrive the next Thursday or Friday to find that all the bowls and utensils and pans and knives and everything that we'd used the previous week had been sitting in this room molding and rotting and generally festering until we could get there to wash it all up. It was the nastiest mess I've ever seen or hope to see in a kitchen, and I'm glad to know that her game wasn't the norm.

Posted by: kira at August 12, 2005 05:45 PM

A lost Band-Aid is a damn good reason for panic. Yikes! You might want to consider getting some non-latex gloves. Latex allergies are becoming more common, and their reactions tend to be fatal.

Posted by: Cynthia at August 12, 2005 11:50 PM

Reminds me of a Thanksgiving dinner service some 12 or so years ago with a former boss, his band-aid, the stuffing, and a major power outage.

At least leafy salads are green. That's all I can say.

Posted by: haddock at August 12, 2005 11:59 PM

One of our suppliers, I don't remember which, probably the one with the disposables for carry-out, etc., provides electic blue bandaids which we keep in our first aid kits. No way is that going to slip by in almost anything you might serve!

Love your blog, and can identify with most every single line of every entry!

Posted by: MemphisBelle at August 13, 2005 08:06 PM

Just out of curiosity, why latex? I know you have to wear gloves of some sort, but more and more people are becoming allergic to latex (I have a good friend who is deathly allergic--even to food thats been handled by latex gloves, eating at one of your functions could very well kill her). So why not use vinyl? I used to be in an industry where I had to wear hand protection, and I found vinyl to be much nicer any way.

Posted by: Josephine at August 16, 2005 05:25 PM