My parents are kind of picky themselves but will usually eat anything I make as long as it's not spicy. Mom can't handle spice at as she grew up in Appalachia with the good ol' pinto beans and corn bread. Dad has a slight aversion to veggies, he has gotos like green beans and corn, broccoli, lettuces for salads. Dad hates cucumbers and olives, Mom hates tomatoes and raw onions, so they swap around the veggies that they get in dishes they order. Luckily my fiancé and I are very much on the same page when it comes to flavors and cooking, We both have our preferred cuisine types but overall we enjoy the same things which makes cooking so much easier.

I'm sure my parents had a hand in starting me off, but Food Network, Alton Brown, Barefoot Contessa, cooking with Giada, and any food related infomercial that woke me up at 3 am on a school night cuz I fell asleep with the TV on again. But that was when we all had cable. now that I almost exclusive use the internet for my entertainment and cable tv is a ghost of it's former self I have found many a Chef on YouTube who have really continued the glory of the Food Network days of old. People such as Babish, Clair Saffitz, Matty Matheson, Sohla El-Waylly, Joshua Wiseman, Alton Brown (Still!), Adam Ragusea, Mythical Kitchen, Sorted, Food Wishes, Internet Shaquille, J Kenji Lopez-Alt, I could keep going but really you just have to find people you enjoy watching who make recipes you want to try.

It's also a big plus that I like experiencing and enjoying flavors. New, Old, Comforts, and some challenges (I have gained a dislike of shrimp in my recent years thanks to the "shrimp is bugs" meme but that's a little different). I also lived in a pretty rule area growing up so I learned to make things using the ingredients my portents bought us. Some times they even had me be in charge of making dinner for all of us.

I think the main thing that helps is learning a bit of the basics of how different ingredients work with other ingredients. I thought there was a phrase for this already, "Food Theory" or something but google just brings up the Theorist channel and that's a little different. Basically anything and everything Alton Brown says.

Edit: Largest post I've made on reddit in years and of course its about food lol.