Snapedom

Well, I suppose it depends on how he got to be the boy we meet spying on Lily at the park. My mother-in-law was cooking full meals for her parents by the time she was 8 or so (and earning her own money at 12), I'm not exactly sure of the details but I think it had to do with her mother's health problems at the time (her father was a dreamer, always involved with some failing new business or politics who couldn't be bothered with something as earthly as cooking). So if we go back to Severus - if his home life was more functional in his early years, maybe before his magic showed, he could have learned enough to gain the most basic kitchen skills, enough to keep himself going as a poor young adult.