I think that food (like most tastes) has both a subjective and an objective component, but we tend to confuse the two things. For example, a dish can be made well or poorly, the ingredients can be fresh or off, the price is what it is and so on.
In my culinary adventures, I have found that, while I have certain foods/flavors I generally don’t like, I have also discovered that in the hands of a truly skilled cook, even things I don’t like can be palatable…even enjoyable.*
For example, I don’t like arugula. But I’ve had it served to me in 3 different places where I enjoyed it, one of which I’d actually go to SEEKING that dish. (Unfortunately, that place closed decades ago when the owner decided to stop paying his rent.)
Asparagus? One Greek restaurant made me forget my dislike of it. Nobody else.
Pumpkin is something I usually eat once very year or two, usually in pie form. But in January of 2020, I discovered a Burmese restaurant that serves a meat (your choice of pork, chicken or shrimp) & pumpkin stew that I’ve now had 3 times. The same place makes a shrimp & eggplant dish that I don’t even need the shrimp to enjoy. (Eggplant is the veggie that is the defining line between veggies I like and those I dislike.)
Five cooks- three still living- have conquered my general dislike of okra with their gumbos. And one of them recently taught me how to make white beans in a way I like.
So even though I’m well aware of my preferences, I haven’t closed the door on trying things I normally dislike when prepared differently from what I have already experienced.
* not including differences in tastes that are genetically hardwired, like those poor souls for whom cilantro tastes soapy. I have seemingly been blessed with not having any of those (or similar) genes.