[Salieri starts a bit as the potato drops into the pot, and his attention jerks back up to Angus from where he'd been giving his own potato a thousand yard stare]

Ah... [he glances down into the pot] Let me just finish this one, and that should be sufficient. [he's going to quickly finish that up and drop it into the pot, before pushing to his feet] Let's move the pot up onto the counter. We will then need to roughly chop these potatoes, and cover them with water.