Lethal Chef

News from the UK,  that the popularity of TV chef programs seems to be leading to an upswing in kitchen-related injuries, prompts two reactions.
1) Nice to see the USA has not cornered the market on stupid. Yet.
2) Is the correlation between TV chefs and kitchen accidents even more concrete than the article suggests?
Insurance daily claims

Since celebrity chefs tried to educate the nation and the blow torch moved in alongside the potato masher, amateur chefs have been getting into trouble.
According to the research, 14% of those questioned had experienced an accident or damaged their kitchen in some way, while trying out new recipes.
Seventy-three per cent of respondents had little faith in their ability as a chef; however 75% were keen to attempt a complex technique.

Is there that much creme getting bruleed at home? I have to wonder if the issue is not the chefs themselves -- hard to see how, generally speaking, making cassoulet would be more dangerous than making bangers and mash, or whatever these folks were eating in the dark days before the birth of the Naked Chef. Rather, if folks have TVs in their kitchen, and are cooking along to live, DVRed, or DVDed cooking programs, could the distraction of the flickering image itself be generating the accident? If you are making a brunoise while watching someone make a brunoise, it's not hard to see how you might wind up shy a finger or two.

The simple answer might be not to have a TV in the kitchen, a thought that might be unAmerican, and economically unstimulating.* While I wonder at the premise of the article, in re the danger of new and specialized kitchen equipment, I can say that it is a bad idea to listen to Grandmixer DST, or any other scratch-heavy music, while trying out your new mandolin. Trust me. But get out a sharp knife, and enjoy:

Grandmixer DST "Crazy_Cuts"_Original_12" Long_version.mp3

*I am not, like, a global economic expert, but in the long run, how does giving every American a check about the size of an inexpensive piece of consumer electronics help our economy? Couldn't we save the gas from all those trips to Best Buy and just send a jillion dollars to China?