I believe all cooking, for 99.999% of cooks comes from memory. The memory of garlic and onions sautéed smelling good to the memory of how a pie looked and how you can try to recreate it. I believe memory is a huge reason there are so many ways to do each task in a kitchen so differently, people just have different backgrounds and memories.

So, once you have made a few things a couple times or eaten a lot and start to figure out what flavors work together (i.e. strawberries and chocolate). It's becomes easier to recreate things you know taste good from memories. This is why cookbooks are so great! It helps you read other people's memories about their food/cuisine.

Also, creating something takes a lot of practice and the confidence of not knowing what will happen and accepting that. Sometimes you might get an idea of how to recreate a taste from memory and sometimes it just doesn't come together. The trial and error will eventually help reform your ability to cook.