'MasterChef': Charlotte Seriously Injures Herself in Chopping Mishap

'I was trying to go big or go home, and now I'm doing both,' contestant Charlotte said after severing the tip of her finger.

By Allison Schonter

A MasterChef contestant was forced to leave the episode early, not because of her cooking skills, but rather a gruesome injury that sent the show into chaos. Vegan IT programme director Charlotte, 42, was rushed off set after she severed the tip of her finger while competing on the current season of the BBC cooking show.

The gruesome incident, which left many viewers squeamish, occurred just minutes into the late April episode as Charlotte took on the basic ingredients task, according to Yahoo! Entertainment. For her dish, Charlotte opted to prepare Pot sticker dumplings with chili sauce, chili oil, and crispy chili peanuts "because we eat a lot of chili, I'm forced to have chili with everything because my husband would have chili on porridge if he could." Before getting to work, though, she said she would "need to go as fast as I can so that I can do all the stuff I need to," a decision that proved costly.

As she began to chop the ingredients, and just as hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace were saying how eager they were to try her dish, Charlotte interrupted to say, "Sorry I've just cut my finger. Can I have a plaster? It's quite a lump out." Torrode responded by informing Charlotte, who could be seen clutching her bloody hand, "I'm sorry to say you've taken the top of your finger off and that means you're going to have to go and get sorted out." As the camera zoomed in on her work area, the extent of her injury became more clear as what appeared to be the tip of her finger could be seen stuck to the knife she had been using.

"Sadly Charlotte has cut herself and she had to leave the MasterChef kitchen for medical attention. So she won't be finishing off her dish," Torrode revealed, with Charlotte admitting, "I was trying to go big or go home – and now I've done both!"

The incident was unsettling for many viewers. Reacting to the incident on X (formerly Twitter), one person said they were "not prepared for someone chopping the end of their finger off in the first 30seconds of #MasterChef tonight." Somebody else wrote, "Catching up on masterchef......... I did NOT need to see the top of that women's finger left on the knife while eating my dinner."

Despite the gnarly injury, which forced her to sit out the episode, Charlotte advanced to the next round and returned to the competition just two episodes later with a bandaged finger. She assured viewers, per the Daily Mail, "I'm good thanks, I'm healing well. I'm so happy to be back."

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