To be shocked that Annabel Karmel's 18yr old son can't cook?

Must say that my mum, a superb cook, was v good at getting us all into the kitchen, and all was going well with me able to do at least part of breadbaking, basic cake and grill own toast-based meals etc, until my sister got seriously into cooking and that was IT - she couldn't stand having anybody else in the kitchen with her. Cue ten-year string of fantastic meals emerging from unknown kitchen area by either sis or mum and me putting my feet up. Stuff happens.

I was HORRIFIED by the "wife" quote

Just depressed and horrified

How can mothers STILL be saying things like that to their sons?

it defies belief

Horrified as I was by all the stuff about food, I was even more horrified by his blithe confession that he runs home to mummy every weekend. Oedipus, Schmoedipus! I feel deeeeeeply sorry for any poor girl who falls into the Karmel lair

highly unlikely the article is inaccurate, tige. the way they're done (i know this cos i write a similar thing) is you interview both people (not necessarily at the same time but mostly) and then just transcribe the tape. you might shuffle things around a bit for sense but basically you can rest assured that those words came out of their mouths.

I too am amazed that AK's son apparently has never cooked proper meals before. My guess is the article is wildly inaccurate (hopefully). If it is accurate, then my next guess is the standard is so high at home that he felt unable to compete. I know I would have felt like that had I had a competitive and very driven cook for a mother.

And if there is always plenty of food around, why bother to learn. So not really the son's fault. But I am at a loss to know why AK did not insist he learned to cook basics before going off to uni.

My nearly 13 year old loves cooking and can cook various simple proper meals, from grilled chops to spag bol. He routinely makes cooked breakfasts for us all when I am too busy. My 7 year old can and does make a sandwich or a milk shake and will no doubt do more as he gets older.

I am glad my older son will know how to prepare healthy meals when he leaves home. It is a vital life skill IMO. I left home only knowing only how to cook a bit, but certainly enough to get by.

I think the answer is to get AK addicted to munsnet all day then she'd let any old person do the cooking at home

i loved that she's all 'we made Chicken Karmel, it's a great favourite in our family' and her beloved child was like 'we made this sweet and sour thing'. it's like he hasn't read her script!

not if you're a lazy 18 yr old boy

can't be bothered and don't know how - are two different things

My only aspiration as a SAHM is to enjoy time with my DS - it is certainly not to just spend my time slaving over domestic chores! Preparing nutritious meals is just a dull necessity for me I'm afraid.

Anyway, maybe AK's son is just a lazy shite-hawke? I mean he certainly wouldn't be the first teenage boy who can't be bothered to cook.

My 3.10 year old is well on her way to cooking and baking.

She's a mess, but an ounce of pain for a pound of pleasure when she's adept at it as a teen.

I actually think from a lot of posts on mumsnet that the aspiration to be perfect mother transpires into a reality where the child gets almost everything done for them. I ponder this irony regularly. I am no chef and my F?T job means that i rarely have the time to do anything other than dig something from the freezer and pop it into the oven. I realise a lot of Mnetters can manage this with 6 children and make it fresh and organic after a 60 hour week! i exagerate slighly. However, my children can cook the same basic meals as i can cook. In fact Friday night was 'cook your own' night for a while.

Due to an excellent cooking teacher, my children can do excellent apple crumble.

AK is a working mother, surely?

ah but xenia as a working mother I hardly ever feed my kids, therfore I totally disagree (not in ytour SAHM are servile) but just I sometimes think I don't actually KNOW what my children eat on a day to day basis

Otherwise as you know I love your comments they are sound

Well Xenia I do agree with you sometimes but please not so many generalisations; I'm a sahm who wants to raise 4 independent competent adults who can go to university already knowing how to cook for pleasure and conviviality as much as for nutrition. I don't mollycoddle or fuss over their food. My working sil (teacher) has a 19yo at university who's been thrown into the deep end as he's never had to lift a finger at home. Her mil lives with them and helps/helped with her 2 boys. The 16yo is a bit better as he's interested in food, but isn't often allowed into the kitchen.

We can all generalise from the particular but what's the point ? Most people tonight, us included, do agree however that these skills are useful.

Oh Xenia, you do realise that SAHM aren't all domestic goddesses chained to their ovens/washing machines/sinks etc. depriving their family of learning useful life skills

Oh Xenia, you do make me laugh.

Given the number of pots and pans and ingredients required to create an Annabel Karmel recipe I wouldn't be suprised that any uni student didn't own /couldn't afford enough of them to cook anything.

Seriously though, I have only just started cooking for my DH and DS properly and I'm 30 (In my defence I had no guiding influence in my formative years)

My dear Lord Xenia does a klaxon go off above your PC everytime someone mentions working mothers?

..my second one who also cooks well says she'd been living off pasta most of last term at university as the kitchen was so small and there were so many of them fighting for space in it that was the easiest thing. She's been meat eating all holiday to compensate. The oldest very differently lived in a student house where they cooked together every night, roasts, even birds the boys had shot that weekend occasionally.

Children of working mothers are often better at cooking because they don't have that mother fussing around getting their food all the time, mother as servile cook and cleaner.

shocking any 18 year old cannot prepare food for themselves ...
i live with a man who can and does cook and bake which i cant, and imo its the best thing you can do to teach any child - to fend for themselves domestically and make tasty food in the kitchen...
itsa must....
dont fancy really getting call in twenty years asking how to boil the ketting...

He was probably put off cooking by the effort he saw his mum putting into making smiley snails out of peas and mashed potatoes.

*... if I hadn't made sure that she had the chance to learn....

I've never used Annabel Karmel personally. when I went to uni I knew the basics but I learnt to cook a wider range of food pretty sharpish or face the choice between starvation or paying for expensive microwave dinners.

I actually enjoyed cooking from scratch, much to the horror of my flatmates who thought heating up pasta-in-sauce (no veg or salad to balance it out either ) was 'cooking'.

My dd will learn to cook before she leaves the nest - I'd feel as though I'd failed her in some way.

surely he can't have lived with her for 18 years and never done any cooking? Surely?

My DSs (5 and 3) know how to make cakes already and are always helping me in the kitchen - really can't believe that someone so into children's nutrition would have failed her own children like this

I am a bit gob smacked by it tbh