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

[Bucketsofdynomite]

In Saturday's Guardian magazine Annabel Karmel apperared shocked to find her 18yr old son couldn't actually cook and had never seen a wok. He lives away at university. How would you not notice something like that? How, as a food writer, do you not remember to teach your child to cook? Can only assume she's a total control freak in the kitchen and wouldn't want her kids making a mess.
Do you intend to teach your kids how to cook? Are you a non-cook yourself? How did that happen (or not happen)?

I bet the lad can't do any other domestic "chores" either.

Warning all you women, do not marry Nicholas Karmel.

Well, would you want her as your MIL?

Message withdrawn

My elder ds's are 13 and nearly 12. The 13 yo is building up a repertoire of spag bol, chicken curry, a basic stirfry, tomato tarte on a puff pastry base, mushrooms on toast etc. The younger one can do spag bol and understands the techniques used for other dishes. My 8 yo dd can use the toaster safely...just waiting for 3yo ds3 to be a bit bigger !

Quite funny in an ironic way that AK's little prince is so hopeless (and yes, exactly how did she not notice ?)

I've never heard of her but my 18 year old son cooks very well. In fact recently when he's here whenever he's cooking for himself he cooks for his younger brothers now too. He seemed to learn more over the summer before he went away to university.

will post something coherent when have stopped PMSL!

his wifey is going to be one lucky lady, in the kitchen cooking AK recipes, with a perky bow in her hair, ad infinitum

!!!!!

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

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.

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

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

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...

..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.

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

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)

Oh Xenia, you do make me laugh.

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

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.

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

AK is a working mother, surely?

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.

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.

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.

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

not if you're a lazy 18 yr old boy

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!

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