At the risk of scoring myself on that Rorschach test, eggs are just a great thing to hammer on for cooking education. You find a lot of kitchen novices that would do something like throw a frozen chicken breast in a cold pan, crank the heat on high, and wonder why it comes out like rubber. You have to make an effort to get them to understand things like the starting temperature of the pan, the heat, and length of the cooking time aren't all interchangeable. Eggs are great to illustrate that because they're quick, accessible, and change a lot depending on how you tackle it. If you can get a novice to the point where they're making good french-style scrambled eggs or omelets, then they've focused on the ingredient and process enough to get that egg-whisperer sense, and that bodes well for all their future cooking endeavors.