Handsome Englishman Chops Off His Handsome English Fingertip On TV

The kitchen is a minefield for clumsy cooks like myself. I've been scorched, sliced, and diced more times than I can count—but I've never hacked off a fingertip on television. Unfortunately, that's what happened to Harry Judd, a contestant on British television channel ITV's new cooking show, Cooking with the Stars.

The Sun reports that Judd, a well-known English musician and winner of ballroom dance competition show Strictly Come Dancing, was "left in agony" after slicing his fingertip off while taping Cooking with the Stars. Emma Willis, one of the show's hosts, told The Sun that Judd cut himself "within the first two minutes" of a cooking challenge.

"The first chop he made he took the end of his little finger off," Willis said, blaming the high-pressure environment for the accident. "Because of the pressure they were trying to do everything too quickly. And they had professional knives, which they've never handled before, so there was a lot of nicks and cuts." Willis added that Judd carried on with the challenge, double-gloving his hand only to find the glove filled with blood an hour later.

On Cooking with the Stars, eight celebrities are paired with professional chefs who assist them with a series of cooking challenges. During the show, the chefs mentor the celebs to improve their cooking skills, booting challenge losers off the show as the series advances. But despite the presence of kitchen pros, other contestants apparently suffered knife-related injuries during taping, too. "Johnny Vegas cut himself at the start and Shirley [Ballas] too, and Denise [Van Outen] can't use sharp knives, so she used blunt knives for everything," Willis said. The injuries may have been the result of contestants' inexperience, but it also seems like the show's responsibility to provide proper kitchen training before cameras start rolling, no? Either way, I'm sending Judd best wishes and wishing his fingertip a full recovery.