Sneer at rules put to cooks providing course (4,6,4)
I believe the answer is:
mock turtle soup
'course' is the definition.
(course in a meal)
'sneer at rules put to cooks' is the wordplay.
'sneer at' becomes 'mock' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'cooks' indicates an anagram.
'rules'+'put'+'to'='rulesputto'
'rulesputto' with letters rearranged gives 'turtlesoup'.
'mock'+'turtlesoup'='MOCK TURTLE SOUP'
'providing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mock turtle soup that I've seen before include "starter" , "for which bovine head is used as substitute" , "First course" .)