<p>What do you think? My son just completed his first year of culinary school. I know the courses he has completed, and he should be able to prepare a simple meal. He can’t even make scrambled eggs. I once had a boyfriend who was suing his college because he completed a degree in computer sciences, but by the time he was done his information was outdated, and he could not get a job. Should or are colleges held responsible for what and how they teach something? My son has a 3.6 average, which to me means he should have learned something.</p>
<p>Failure to teach is a valid, though uncommon, cause of action against universities.</p>
<p>But before you pursue litigation, speak with your son. What does he feel he learned? What was the curriculum, vs the advertised curriculum? Look over the course catalog, and get a feel for what the kids focused on.</p>
<p>If you feel that your son was shortchanged, call up the school and speak with a dean. Then speak to some alumni, etc. Pursue some other avenues. if you remain unhappy with the school’s advertised teaching vs the actual teaching, you may consult an attorney.</p>
<p>Can a kid sue his parents for not teaching him how to scramble an egg? 
Don’t you have to demonstrate an interest in cooking to get into culinary school? And how do you do that without knowing how to cook anything? You raise some interesting questions! Maybe the first year of culinary school is just theory. Maybe they do the lab work later.</p>
<p>Ask your child about the curriculum and what he actually learned. While he may not be able to scramble an egg, he may be able to bake bread.</p>
<p>my son has had practical labs since day one of his education. I personally would not persue anything legally, but am just posing the question. I do think schools that you have paid $120,000plus to should have some responsibility to teach appropriate information to be marketable. I also think people need to look at what they are going in to, so they can BE marketable, ie) my son’s girlfriend is studying geology. while it may be an interesting major, what the heck is she going to do with it? Just some things I think about while I am laying awake at night…wondering if my kids are going to be spending the rest of their lives living with me ;)</p>
<p>geology could end up being pretty useful. Oil & gas companies and gov’t agencies with environmental concerns certainly employ geologists.</p>
<p>(maybe the budding chef simply considers scrambling eggs beneath him. Let him choose something to demonstrate what he’s learned this year.)</p>
<p>What did your son do for a year? How did he spend his days?</p>
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<p>I would have thought he would have made scrambled eggs at least once while attempting to perfect his hollandaise technique!</p>
<p>my roommates boyfriend goes to culinary school. he just started in january. he came up to our apartment every weekend and practiced his cooking. it was great, because the five of us got free (delicious) meals, pastries, and other snacks out of it… and he loved it. it’s one of those things that you need to practice…</p>
<p>When my wife wanted me to cook, she started buying me cookbooks. Sounds like to me that this aspiring young chef needs some cookbooks for inspiration. Here are few that I would recommend as among the best ever written:</p>
<p>Marcella Hazen, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
I think that if I had to have just one cookbook for the rest of my life, this would probably be it. It is everything that Julia Child’s cookbooks should be: simple, concise with recipes from simple little 30 minute dishes to home-made pastas.</p>
<p>Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1 and 2
I actually don’t enjoy cooking from these as the recipes tend to be lengthy and involved (try the Lobster Thermidor for an endless recipe!) However, they are THE books that started it all in the United States and they are the most comprehensive cookbooks around. I use them as reference books and they are the best at teaching basic techniques like hollandaise, etc. Best creamed onions in the world!</p>
<p>Paul Prudhomme, Lousiana Kitchen
His first cookbook and the definitive cajun/creole cookbook. This book is so chock full of basic cooking techniques that it is like a graduate course. The color pictures of the eight colors of roux are worth the price of the book. Successfully make your first nearly-black roux for gumbo and you’ll understand everything about fat/flour based sauces. Unbelievably well-written cookbook and the recipes are fantastic.</p>
<p>Shizuo Tsuji, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
The definitive book on Japanese cooking. Not simple at all. Julia Child for Japanese, with incredibly detailed information and recipes.</p>
<p>Victor Sodsook, True Thai
Maybe the best cookbook ever written. I’ve read this cover to cover several times. The only hard part is finding the ingredients; allow about eight hours for your first visit to the Asian market! After that, the recipes are out of this world good.</p>
<p>Bobby Flay, Bold American Food
This cookbook taught me how to wing it. Make a few of his vinaigrette based sauces or wacky salsas or ancho-chile crusted anything and you’ll be creating your own variations. His recipes are manageable for an experienced cook and are often spectacular.</p>
<p>Rick Bayless, Mexican Kitchen
The definitive book on Mexican cooking. Another Julia Child-like tome that is best used as an encylopedia. Recipes tend towards the complex and I’m not really wild about the organization of the book. But, it has everything with pages and pages of background information. Truly superb recipes. The Yucatin Grilled Sea Bass tacos with Mexican red rice and home-made habeneros salsa is to die for.</p>
<p>Steven Raichlin, Barbeque Bible
I throw this one on the list because it is 700 pages of recipes from around the world. I’ve found some terrific stuff here that is applicable to many dishes. For example, Nicarauguan Chimichurra sauce for grilled steaks, shrimp, etc. Or, Cuban Mojo Criollo sauce for pork. A great idea book.</p>
<p>Back to the geology section…what can you do with a degree in geology! One morning at a camp in the Sierras I sat down to breakfast next to a young lady who when asked what she did stated," I am a Martian geologist." No lie. Interesting young lady.</p>
<p>I.D., Thanks for the list of books…“Yucatin Grilled Sea Bass etc” sounds to die for!</p>
<p>Asmith - did the college not teach, or did your son just not learn? And is your son being really on the level with you? I mean, my kids could prepare scrambled eggs from the age of 4. My son went off to college also knowing how to make easy mac, instant mashed potatoes, and top ramen. Now he also knows how to make an omellette and how to use a rice cooker. These aren’t things you need to go to culinary school to learn – these are things you just learn by doing when you have to feed yourself. </p>
<p>My guess is that your son knows darn well how to scramble eggs, but he just would rather let you do the cooking at home, so he professes ignorance. Children and spouses sometimes do that. Maybe the problem is that you are too good a cook – my kids were more self sufficient about cooking because they figured early on that their mom’s cooking could stand a lot of improvement.</p>
<p>Amith1, if this was my son, I would sit him down and let him know that if he couldn’t scramble eggs after a year at culinary school, clearly he wasn’t destined to be a chef, and certainly I wouldn’t want to throw good money after bad, and wish him luck figuring out what else he could try, instead, because my checkbook was closed. </p>
<p>I bet I would have a plate of scrambled eggs in front of me pretty fast. </p>
<p>Your son is responsible for knowing the material taught - really knowing it and being able to apply it, increasingly so after every year. The school is responsible for creating an opportunity for him to learn, but they can’t guarantee that each student will do their part to take the information being offered. </p>
<p>But personally, I agree with calmom, that it is easier for him to let you cook while he is at home, and that he can scramble eggs and cook food - otherwise, for heaven’s sake, what did he live on, food wise, while he was at school? Cereal? Culinary students are usually pretty intense about cooking outside of the classroom and on the weekends.</p>
<p>On geology.</p>
<p>here’s a portion of the email I received from my friend the successful geologist.</p>
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<p>Amith, is your son truly incapable of scrambling eggs, or does he just choose not to do so? I am very guilty of turning my boys into helpless blobs when I am around. When they are away from me, they are capable of somehow living their lives and getting by, but if I am on the scene, they seem to revert to total helplessness. When I tell them to pack for a trip and am overseeing the process, I end up having to take it over and wondering if they should not be packed off to some asylum somewhere (maybe that is what college is). But they have managed to pack themselves when I am not around. I have a feeling that your son is not going to starve in a kitchen full of ingredients. He may choose never to make scrambled eggs, but he may well be able to make a haute cuisine meal.</p>
<p>It’s buyer beware and college education is also a product with no refund of course even if you paid by credit card.(lol)</p>
<p>interesteddad, what happens to the Joy of Cooking was written by Irma Starkloff Rombauer, one of the bible of cooking. My book is so tored up, it’s unbelievable. I had a lot of joy indeed.</p>
<p>I think the “Joy of Cooking” is a horrible cookbook for a novice cook. It is little more than an ingredient list. That’s fine for an experienced cook. But, a novice cook does a lot better with recipes that actually describe how to cook the dish in easy to follow, yet comprehensive steps. For example, what the heck does “season to taste” mean to a novice cook?</p>
<p>On the other hand, Paul Prudhomme’s recipes are nearly foolproof as he gives specific instructions like "add onions, carrots, and celery and sautee over medium heat for 8 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan frequently.</p>
<p>My “Joy of Cooking” is as dog-eared as the next guy’s. However, as I have learned to cook over the years, I’ve realized how inadequate (and frustrating) “Joy” can be for inexperienced cooks.</p>
<p>You are right. I must learn how to cook some other way but I still use it a lot because it has almost all of the basic recipes I need.</p>
<p>I really like Cooks illustrated magazine
breaks down recipes to what really works and why
also reviews things like consumer reports does and often times best pan isn’t the $200 calaphon.
They publish books as well THe Best Recipe is a favorite- much better than Joy- my opinion anyway.
I am not a big cookbook user just a reader- I like to use them as a jumping off place, thats why Cooks is helpful because tells why one thing works and something else doesn’t, then I can use it as a map to find my own way.
Course my style of cooking doesn’t work with baking too well-…there you need to be a tad more exact.
<a href=“Error”>Error;
another cookbook I really like isthe new Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas & Madhur Jafferys World Vegetarian.</p>
<p>I love the UK cookbooks:</p>
<p>Delia Smith
Jamie Oliver
Nigella Lawson</p>
<p>I am the type of cook who skim reads cook books for recipes, follows a potential recipe for first go and then cooks by instinct thereafter. </p>
<p>My H must have the step by step in front of him or else–unless it’s goulash or salmon dill pasta or stroganoff.</p>
<p>Cooking courses will be in my future–I hope. I’ll be sure to sign up for the ones where I learn to cook something specific.</p>