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"Cue &amp;quot;Pomp and Circumstance&amp;quot; and have the graduation gifts ready. A new culinary school has set up shop: Top Chef University is opening its doors Wednesday. No, really. This is great. Part   of the problem with cooking shows, of course, is that after you&amp;#039;ve watched all those great meals being prepared you&amp;#039;re frequently given little more than a recipe to figure out how to make them. For those who want to learn to cook, the recipe frequently isn&amp;#039;t enough. Basic techniques \u2013 in everything from knife work to selecting ingredients to making a basic velout\u00E9 or b\u00E9chamel sauce \u2013 can be far more a hindrance to those who don&amp;#039;t know them.  &amp;quot;\u2026if you have not learned to wield a knife rapidly a recipe calling for 2 cups of finely diced vegetables and 2 pounds of sliced mushroom caps is often too discouraging to attempt,&amp;quot; noted Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which you should have a copy of, by the way. The online program offers more than 60 hours of video and written instruction including 200 in-depth lessons across 12 courses, for $25 per course or $200 for immediate access to the whole shebang. Instructors include previous Top Chef winners and fan favorites. I&amp;#039;ve only watched a few of the brief &amp;quot;lectures&amp;quot; that comprise Course 1, so far, but they&amp;#039;re basic and well produced. Most important, they make no assumptions about your skill levels and offer solid explanations for why they&amp;#039;re teaching what they&amp;#039;re teaching. Some criticism has hit the Internet already. &amp;quot;Because the best way to learn to cook is by paying money over the internet...&amp;quot; observed a rather sardonic Gothamist. Certainly, it doesn&amp;#039;t replace taking cooking courses with real human interaction but these seem to be a good, basic introduction to cooking for those who are both enthralled and mystified by what happens in the kitchen.  The courses: * Basics and Techniques * Stocks, Soups, Sauces, Raw * Cooking Techniques I: Saut\u00E9, Boil, Grill * Cooking Techniques II: Roast, Braise, Fry, Confit * Vegetables, Eggs, Dairy, Cheese * Poultry/Pig * Beef/Lamb/Offal * Fish, Seafood * Pasta Grains, Bread * Desserts * Global Cuisine * Entertaining, Molecular, Advanced Technique That last course should prove interesting. I can almost see the results now: &amp;quot;Hey, what&amp;#039;s Dad doing with that centrifuge?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s making dinner, dear.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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