Cutting yourself is one thing...but worrying about a literal bomb dropping down on you at any moment? Usually celebrity chefs are in complete control of their kitchens, but every so often they have reason to fear for their lives.
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00:00Cutting yourself is one thing, but worrying about a literal bomb dropping down on you
00:04at any moment? Usually, celebrity chefs are in complete control of their kitchens, but
00:09every so often, they have reason to fear for their lives.
00:14When you're filming a live cooking segment with one of the world's leading chefs, it's
00:17natural that you'd want to look like you know what you're doing. For Mark Consuelos, this
00:21scenario wasn't especially different from most mornings on Live with Kelly and Mark…
00:25until it was. On a March 2024 episode, Consuelos and his wife-slash-co-host Kelly Ripa put
00:31on their aprons to make a trio of classic French sauces with chef Eric Ripert. As Ripa
00:36chopped shallots for the chicken jus, she expressed worry that her knife skills weren't
00:40up to par. Ripert gave the couple a brief demonstration of letting one's fingers guide
00:45the blade as you chop. So Consuelos then tried to be a supportive husband and replicate Ripert's
00:49demonstration by giving shallot chopping a try.
00:53Don't cut yourself, please.
00:55Just seconds after that warning, though, Consuelos went ahead and indeed cut his finger. Viewers
00:59didn't actually get to see him bleeding, though he did announce that his fingernail may have
01:03ended up in the shallots. Fortunately for Consuelos, his injury ultimately wasn't very
01:07serious.
01:09It's a tale as old as time. Gordon Ramsay arrives at a restaurant, everyone puts on
01:13a brave face, but really, their knees are knocking. For Brian Rutherford, executive
01:18chef at the Keating Hotel, this situation unfolded in a startlingly unpredictable manner.
01:24During a Season 1 episode of Hotel Hell, hotel owner Eddie Kane insisted that the kitchen
01:28staff serve a 150-item menu every night. Ramsay asked Rutherford why he doesn't cook on the
01:34line or inspire people with his food. Rutherford began to explain that he was exhausted, and
01:39then he collapsed in Ramsay's arms. Ramsay steadied the chef and turned to ask for a
01:43chair as Rutherford slumped backwards and fainted, his head landing under the kitchen
01:47sink. Sweaty and glassy-eyed Rutherford was loaded into an ambulance, leaving everyone
01:52shaken. Everyone except the owner, that is. When Ramsay approached Kane about the incident,
01:58the latter implied that Ramsay was the one stressing everyone out.
02:01Do not dare f----- go anywhere near that I put him in that ambulance.
02:06By the time that the episode aired, chef Rutherford was no longer working at the hotel.
02:11Food Network's 2013 Thanksgiving Live special took Giada De Laurentiis out of her comfort
02:16zone in more ways than one. While preparing her turkey porchetta, she cut through her
02:21index finger, and it was quite the unnerving sight as she tried to grin and bear her way
02:25through it. Thanksgiving Live was chaotic right from the start that year, mostly due
02:29to Alton Brown acting like a hyperactive child. He incessantly teased De Laurentiis, who was
02:34concerned about him messing up her hair or staining her silk blouse. At one point, Ina
02:39Garten and Bobby Flay were on camera while De Laurentiis was in the background, apparently
02:43dressing her wound with a cameraman. When Garten asked her about the porchetta, De Laurentiis
02:47announced that she cut her finger open, and she faced the camera with a mix of awkwardness
02:52and pain. Brown continued to make jabs toward De Laurentiis and take questions from viewers,
02:58while Garten took a more maternal approach, and Flay played the role of a checked-out
03:02dad. Eventually, the feed cut to a commercial so that De Laurentiis could bandage up.
03:07She later revealed that the cut required stitches.
03:10Slips and falls often happen in the blink of an eye, which is exactly what happened
03:14to chef Vivek Singh during a live cooking segment on the BBC One program Saturday Kitchen
03:20in May 2013. The popular morning show has served as the stage for more than a few blunders
03:25over the years, and Singh's fall was among the scariest. Host James Martin was at work
03:29wowing guest Laura Haddock with his time-dicing skills, while Singh and chef Glyn Purnell
03:34quietly busied themselves with prep work on the other side of the island. Singh was moving
03:38quickly when he walked behind Martin and Haddock, and then, on his way back to his station,
03:43he slipped on a wet spot and crashed to the floor, the side of his head grazing Martin's
03:47lower back in the process. Haddock screamed in shock as plates on the island clattered
03:52from the impact.
03:53Sorry, I screamed really loud.
03:55Singh got back on his feet in a flash with a little help from Martin and Purnell. He
03:59was incredibly nonchalant, brushing the fall off with a sardonic smirk and going right
04:04back to trimming some asparagus spears. The incident induced some awkward laughter, but
04:08considering the sharp knife that Martin was holding when Singh fell into him, it could
04:11have been a lot worse.
04:12That was a bit close, that.
04:15Years of making Kitchen Nightmares have introduced Gordon Ramsay to more eccentric characters
04:20than most people meet in a lifetime. Peter Pasta Pellegrino of Peter's Restaurant was
04:24one of the most colorful. Every episode of the show follows the same format — Ramsay
04:28tries the food and hates it, talks with the staff to understand why the restaurant is
04:32on the skids, and then tries to work with them to fix it. The Peter's Restaurant episode
04:36began in familiar territory until one seriously scary moment. As the staff prepared for a
04:42new and improved dinner service, an unexpected visitor popped his head in. He was described
04:47as a debt collector, and when Ramsay asked him to leave, he wouldn't relent. This sent
04:51Pellegrino into a rage as he stripped off his blazer and charged outside.
04:55Come on, you fake tough guy! Come on!
04:59Ramsay managed to coax the meat tenderizer out of Pellegrino's hand and get him refocused
05:03on the restaurant, but the fight was beyond intense. After the episode aired, journalists
05:08did some digging and alleged that Pellegrino was a former bookmaker for the Bonanno crime
05:12family and had mob ties since birth.
05:16With his travel show No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain shone a light on the food culture
05:21of various global regions that didn't often appear on camera. The results were eye-opening
05:26to viewers, and few episodes left more of an impact than Season 2's Beirut special.
05:31Bourdain was unafraid to venture into countries beset by conflict, as he hoped to shift the
05:35focus to the everyday civilians living and eating there. Beirut is the capital and largest
05:40city of Lebanon, and it had been a hotbed of military conflict for some time.
05:45Nevertheless, Bourdain was intent on highlighting the cultural richness behind the unrest. His
05:50tour started out exactly as it was meant to, but then the bombs began to drop. Nine days
05:55went by as Bourdain and the No Reservations team holed up in their hotel, during which
05:59the roof of the airport they landed at was hit in an airstrike. Bourdain would eventually
06:04be rescued aboard a marine ship responsible for evacuating civilians from the area. He
06:09never intended for the troubling footage to be made into an episode, let alone the special
06:13that it was eventually edited into.
06:15Well, you know, look at the footage.
06:17As a regular on ITV's This Morning, Donal Skehan figured it would be just another day
06:22at the studio in March 2022, when he was scheduled to film a cooking segment. The popular
06:27Irish chef had just finished whipping up some delectable raspberry cheesecake bars when
06:31he was told that the entire building was being evacuated. A report of a suspicious item found
06:36in the area caused the entire Shepherds Bush suburb of London to go on high alert. Nearby
06:41roads and underground transportation were temporarily halted, while This Morning and
06:45other live shows were forced to abruptly cut to commercial.
06:48Pre-recorded programming was then piped onto the airwaves, much to viewers' dissatisfaction.
06:53Skehan was shaken, although he was able to go on social media to address what was happening.
06:57He explained that the threat was eventually cleared and expressed gratitude to ITV Studios
07:02for keeping everyone safe. The incident didn't keep the affable Skehan off This Morning for
07:06long, as he showed up to prepare a garlic and rosemary chicken dish just weeks after
07:11the scare.
07:13Few celebrity chefs are as comfortable on camera as Gordon Ramsay. However, a 2010 appearance
07:17on The Ellen DeGeneres Show proved that on-air mishaps can befall even the most professional
07:22chefs. As Ramsay and DeGeneres began the prep work for a vegan stir-fry, he warned her to
07:27be careful slicing the carrot as he started on the red bell pepper. He offered a soft
07:31demonstration of how to tuck the fingers in as you slice, while she insisted that having
07:35your fingers so close to the blade seems pretty dangerous.
07:38Sure enough, Ramsay then sliced right into his middle fingertip. Rather than launch into
07:43the histrionics that he's known for, he explained that he cut himself because he wasn't concentrating.
07:48Meanwhile, blood gushed from his finger, which he joked would blend in with the pepper.
07:52Ramsay attempted to continue, but he could only pretend for about 10 seconds that this
07:55wasn't a problem. He asked for a Band-Aid, as he told the audience that he hadn't cut
08:00himself in 10 years. DeGeneres was understandably horrified as she examined the cut and determined
08:05that a Band-Aid wouldn't be enough. Then she rifled through the vegetables in search of
08:09Ramsay's fingernail. He attempted to play it cool, but he was clearly thrown off, as were
08:13most of the viewers.