We can help you claim
compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
Call: 0800 10 757 95
Most of the cases we deal with in our no win, no fee offices deal with incidents that, while serious for the people involved, would not cause a dent in the special effects budget of a film reconstruction. But this week we read about the story of a German chef, emulating the style of Heston Blumenthal, who managed to create a seriously injurious explosion in his bathroom.
Unlike the bathroom explosions that followed a visit to Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant a few months ago, where food poisoning fears turned out to be a norovirus outbreak, this was the result of the German chef experimenting with liquid nitrogen in proper molecular gastronomy style.
The chemical requires great care if work accidents are to be avoided, whether it is being used by chefs, chiropodists or chemists, as a container may explode if the liquid is allowed to evaporate too quickly. The evidence available suggests that this is what happened in this case, and the seriousness of the risk is shown by the fact that the chef lost a hand in his explosion, and the other had to be amputated at the hospital.
Although recent reports suggest that the left hand may have been reattached, this is undeniably a very serious personal injury - and one that has not been entirely recovered from, as the doctors predict another 10 operations before the hand may regain 60 to 70 percent use.
With the substance carrying such dangers, we hope that places where it is used carry out appropriate risk assessments and suchlike. El Bulli, another of the world's finest restaurants, has been described as having a huge tank of liquid nitrogen in the back of the kitchen (for freeze-drying the pineapple chunks, naturally); Blumenthal's Bray restaurant must go through loads.
It's true that there's been no news of restaurant explosions recently, which suggests that these high-profile restaurants know what they're doing - but, with Blumenthal being more and more famous in the UK, the chances are that more and more restaurants may be exposing themselves to work accident risks through this most famous of his methods.
Whilst the news of the German chef above may seem to indicate that this is, indeed, happening, it should be noted that this is only to be considered an accident at work in that the chef had taken work home with him. It is likely, therefore, that any serious risk assessment regarding the liquid will encourage the restaurant's workers to use it only in supervised circumstances within the restaurant.
Although no-one would want to minimise the severity of the personal injury suffered by the German chef, it might prove to be a silver lining if his experience served to help protect the chefs who work with molecular gastronomy, and indeed their patrons. Not that a no win, no fee salary is likely to make me one of those customers soon.
