Xanthe Clay returns to Leiths School of Food and Wine The rising cost of university fees has played a major part in the change, Schneideman says. These days students can't do a degree and only then wonder what they are going to do. They can't take on that level of debt, and they are worried they will finish three years of university and not be able to get work. With a Leiths diploma, everyone is set up for a job. You might not get your dream job straight away, but you will get one that will build up experience," she explains, lifting the scones into a baking tin. Students from Leiths have gone on to become career chefs in restaurants including Bibendum, Chez Bruce and Ottolenghi. Some of the brightest stars of the London restaurant scene - Florence Knight of Polpetto, Sam Clarke of Moro and Henry Harris of Racine - are Leiths graduates. Not that restaurant work is the only route for those with a catering qualification. Schneideman checked off the options on still-floury fingers. You could start your own catering company, or run a café, or write for a magazine, write cookery books, teach people how to cook, or work for a food company doing recipe development. Many of the writers on food magazines have come the Leiths route (Good Food magazine sponsors a paid internship for a Leiths graduate every year) and television stars like Gizzi Erskine and Lorraine Pascale have Leiths diplomas under their belts. But it is Schneideman's last suggestion that is most often overlooked, she explains as she vigorously cleans the kitchen surfaces while we wait for the scones to cook. When I talk to people in the commercial food industry they say, 'we haven't got enough people with food experience who can translate real food into a commercial product. It just doesn't occur to people that there are all these amazing jobs out there. This fits with what industry insiders have told me, that while there is a glut of trained nutritionists, they are short of bright new talent to develop products. Yet working in supermarket innovation departments, for example, involves being well paid to travel abroad, eat in new restaurants and trawl food shops and markets, so it is hard to think of a more fulfilling career for a young foodie. Schneideman herself comes from foodie royalty, "one of those annoying families who are talking about the next meal while eating the current one. It drives my husband mad. Her parents are Mike and Suzie Schneideman, the Antipodean couple who revolutionised the kitchenware market when they opened the London shop Divertimenti in the early Sixties. They were the first to import the food processor, a Magimix, to Britain. Young Camilla was involved with the family business too, working as a Saturday girl and then full time after graduating from the University of Manchester. She took a diploma course at Leiths in her mid-twenties before setting up the Divertimenti cookery school, which continues to operate, although the Schneidemans are no longer involved. Growing up with a business has taught her the importance of adaptability to success, and Schneideman has been behind the partnership between the school and Asda, developing products such as ready meals made in "sous-vide" style bags, using restaurant techniques. Pupils get an insight into the industry and there will be an internship in the supermarket head office for one graduate. "People were shocked by the association, but the food industry isn't just about having a jam stall at the farmers" markets. We have to be realistic. On a more day-to-day level, good cooks need to be adaptable too, which is easier if you have the right knowledge. At the end of the course, what you come out with, as well as skill, is confidence. You build up layers. You don't start by making a soufflé, you learn to make a white sauce and whisk eggs, these basic skills that make making a soufflé easy. Schneideman has been editing and updating the recipes for the mini recipe books which will be free with next weekend's Telegraph. We forget how much things have changed. Fifteen years ago you couldn't buy specialist paella rice, but there's no need to make paella with long-grain rice any more. The scones are delicious - buttery and soft inside, slightly crisp on the outside. Camilla brushed aside my compliments, remarking drily, "I'm lucky you missed breakfast." Sipping on her tea, she sighed. If everyone did a term at Leiths as part of their graduation to life, it would change the world. It teaches you how to look after yourself and to look after others. It's the most fundamental skill.