Fish and Vegetables

Today we did stuff about costing servings. I had a question about rounding numbers, since in my former life (so to speak) I was a mathematician. But as long as I know what convention they want to use, I guess I can live with it. We spent some more time talking about meats and connective tissues, and also about battering and breading. I did not know that tempura was spiky because of the ice cold water. Now I see why the batter is made with ice inside. The big difference in temperatures is what causes the 'explosion'. Trussing and tying are other things we might be able to do as part of the mise en place.
Also talked aobut fish proteins today. Must remember to be very careful about cooking fish - flesh is easily overcooked because it does't have much collagen.
And speaking about explosions, bombs went off in London this morning. What a horrible thing to wake up to. I read the news before going to class today, but since it's so early there were plenty of people who had not heard about it. It's really kind of weird to be discussing food after that. Certainly brings back memories of 11th September. Chef Costa mentioned how difficult it was to keep things normal that day at school.
Wouldn't it be nice if all we had to worry about was how to fillet things properly? Or how to tourne a potato?