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Her wounds are almost gone, but just weeks ago Taciana Stewart suffered second and third degree burns to her chest, arms and hands while cooking a family meal.

"A pressure cooker, pot flew open. My brother opened it by accident and it burned me," Stewart said.

Already an outpatient, Stewart says a new program at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center got her back in the kitchen again -- sooner than she thought she would.

Doctors are now using a Nintendo Wii cooking game, along with real-world cooking classes to help ease patients, badly burned in a variety of accidents, back into the idea of being around an oven or stove again.

"It is a tough area to get back into because many of the patients are burned while they're cooking. But also if you have a burn you're very sensitive to heat so if you're working around the kitchen it is going to be doubly hard to work because of the discomfort," said Weill Cornell Burn Center Director Roger Yurt.

It's not just the idea of being in the kitchen or being around heat again that patients are getting used to. Practicing chopping motions and other culinary maneuvers help facilitate the rehabilitative process.

Because problems with scarring and stiffness begin soon after burn injuries, therapists here say the goal is to actually get patients to start movement exercises as soon as possible.

"After a burn injury, the skin tightens up and you can have the potential for some deformities. You want to early on in the hospital start to stretch out that skin, strengthen those muscles so they are able to do activities like cooking again," said Weill Cornell Burn Center Physical Therapist Sam Yohannan.

Doctors are comparing the virtual and real-life cooking activities in an ongoing study to see which helps get patients more comfortable. They say early results show the Wii cooking game is having a significant impact. Not only is it getting them prepped to get back in the kitchen, it also serves as a distraction from their injuries.

"It's just like a transition. When I was doing the Wii it was easy and it showed me that accidents do happen and I have no reason to be afraid of the kitchen," Stewart said.