"Well." He leaned back in his chair. "I lived with my aunt for a little while when I was very young, and she taught me most of the basics. I kept working on it to make myself, you know, useful, so I signed on with a travelling caravan when I was about fourteen or so. I did the cooking and kept looking for new tricks so they wouldn't get rid of me."
He waved a hand languidly. "Picking up some magic helped, and then I eventually turned to more magic than cooking, because, well, things happened. And here I am, expert at both."