Thanks to cooking shows and reality TV, the life of a professional chef looks utterly glamorous—gleaming equipment, crisply pressed white jackets, perfect piles of diced vegetables and minced garlic. But working in a restaurant kitchen is grueling, dirty and dangerous work. In honor of Halloween, six top chefs shared their scary on-the-job stories.

"There was a line cook who was really tired, and we were extremely busy. He had put something in the deep fryer, and instead of using tools to pull it out of the hot oil, he used his hand. It was awful. The oil burn is the worst. You can't wash it off. It just cooks the skin. His flesh was just burned off. He didn't come back again. I don't know if he ever cooked again."

—Michael Psilakis
Executive chef, Anthos, Kefi, Gus & Gabriel, Manhattan; Eos, Miami

"I cut off the tip of my finger on my second day ever in a professional kitchen. I thought I was going to die. Luckily it grew back, only to be cut off again."

—David Myers
Executive chef, Comme Ca, Sona, Pizzeria Ortica, West Hollywood

"My scariest kitchen moment was when I saw one of my cooks stab himself with an oyster knife while opening oysters at a restaurant in Italy. It was a very deep cut on his right arm that damaged his tendons. I will never forget his face. We called the paramedics right away and luckily they came really fast. The chef took two months to recover."

A close second place was when I had to peel and cut a whole goat in half using a sword. It so was frightening (especially when I reached the head) that I couldn't sleep for a few days."

—Andrea Cavaliere
Executive chef, Cecconi's, West Hollywood

"My scariest moment in the kitchen happened when I was 17 and working as a prep cook at a restaurant on Fire Island [in New York]. Every Sunday, we washed the floors. This particular Sunday, my buddy was cleaning the counters and he picked up a fan to clean under it, not realizing he was standing in a puddle of water. Next thing you know, he is getting electrocuted. Luckily, another chef saw him and came barreling into him, knocking the fan out of his hand and breaking the current. We rushed him to the hospital and he ended up being all right. Later that night, we were all upstairs with him and his hair was still standing on end. That was a scary night!"

—Jeff Baruch
Executive chef, London Lennies, Queens, NY

"One night at Davidburke & Donatella, our fryer cracked, caught on fire and went down. After some fast reacting to put the fire out, service had to continue. So, we had to heat up a huge pot of oil on the stove top in order to fry. Just when the oil gets hot, I hear one of my cooks yell to me. I come over and see one of our dishwashers pouring water into the pot of oil. Everyone in the kitchen stopped what they were doing, shut up and just stared at the stove. Slowly but surely, the pot started to gurgle and bubble, slowly at first, and then faster and faster and faster and BOOM! There was a huge oil explosion in the middle of a small kitchen during a busy night. Luckily, no one was injured, but that could have been a disaster."

—Eric Hara
Executive chef, The Oak Room, New York City

"Crema staff has seen a spirit in the basement prep area; we think this spirit used to work in the kitchen. Sometimes the lights downstairs go off (bathroom lights and corridor). We leave a shot of tequila downstairs to calm him."

—Julieta Ballesteros
Executive chef, Crema, New York City