Novice chefs beware. With gourmet chefs increasingly using rare, exotic or long-forgotten ingredients in food, even experts can hurt themselves.
Last Thursday, a Japanese sushi chef died after accidentally eating the highly-poisonous liver of the fugu, or puffer fish. While many parts of the fish are tasty and safe, certain organs can be deadly.
The 34-year-old chef was licensed by the Tokyo government to prepare the fugu dish, yet mistakenly thought the liver was safe to eat, according to reporting by The Mainichi Daily News.
Europe saw several widespread hazardous gourmet mistakes earlier this year.
In late August, a popular Swedish food magazine recalled 10,000 store copies after a mistake in one of its cake recipes left four people sick, dizzy and in pain.
"There was a mistake in a recipe for apple cake. Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed," Matmagasinet's chief editor Ulla Cocke told Agence France-Presse.
Agence France-Presse reported that the magazine had issued leaflet warnings about the dangers of nutmeg poisoning, but recalled the magazines after four adults overdosed.
Earlier this fall, celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson Tuesday apologized for a potentially fatal mix-up during a magazine interview when he recommended wild henbane as a great addition to salads.
Thompson said henbane, but he meant fat hen. Fat hen is a weed. Henbane extract was the poison famously poured into Hamlet's father's ear, also often called nightshade.
Nutmeg, henbane and fat hen aren't the only plants that cause confusion. Many herbs have several different names, and many foods have unseen dangers.
The following pages outline just a few toxic plants that share common names with common foods, or common foods that have toxic qualities.
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