Nah, they'd have got him a lady rat.
Not all of them would be smart enough, but rat generations are crazy fast. Breed the smart ones with the other smart ones and you could be franchised nation wide in a couple decades.
Just a bunch of inbred genius rats yanking on some minimum wage teenagers head.
Hell, you could probably charge the human because an average person would learn how to cook pretty fast. It would be the best culinary school in the world.