Curtis Stone Reveals The Worst Kitchen Nightmare He Ever Had - Exclusive
Whether you are a home cook or an executive chef, no one is perfect and kitchen mistakes are bound to happen. While you hope that any slip-ups will be small, sometimes things escalate quickly. Unfortunately, that's what happened to Curtis Stone, Michelin-starred chef and co-host of "Crime Scene Kitchen." He told Mashed in an exclusive interview that his worst kitchen nightmare happened during his first week at Bluebird in London.
Stone said, "I nearly burned down a restaurant in London," going on to explain, "I tried to get this wood fire oven that no one had used for a long time back up and running. And it started a fire in the ceiling above the oven and this AAA rated heritage building was literally on fire. ... Thank God we put it out, but that was a pretty big disaster." But as it turns out, there's a little more to the story than the short version Stone told Mashed.
But there's more to the story than that
Curtis Stone shared a more thorough version of the story with Eater. Apparently, he invited a bunch of his friends and family to the restaurant, and decided to try to get the wood-burning oven as hot as he could just to test it out. That's when he saw some smoke. Stone said he assumed it hadn't been cleaned well since the oven hadn't been used in quite a long time, and decided to simply spray it with a fire extinguisher to fix the problem.
The smoke started getting worse and worse, which is when the chef started thinking it might be time for everyone to evacuate. To add insult to injury, the kitchen had a glass window, so the entire restaurant full of customers had been watching Stone try to handle the tough situation. After flipping the alarm and calling firefighters, Stone even had to run into the dining room and tell everyone to leave because they simply didn't get the severity of the situation.
Luckily for Stone, the firefighters found the problem before the restaurant burned down — the proper ventilation had not been installed. Unfortunately, they had to tear out the oven to extinguish the fire.
For more potential (and imagined) kitchen mishaps, be sure to tune into "Crime Scene Kitchen," airing now on FOX.