ryouri no konomi ha hito ni yotte tigaimasu.

Literally, 料理の好み means preferences in food/cooking or one’s taste in food.

• 料理 = cooking, cuisine, food dishes
• 好み = preference, taste, what someone likes
• 料理の好み = food preferences / taste in food

Here, の links the two nouns, so 料理 describes what kind of 好み it is.

の is being used to connect two nouns.

In this sentence:

• 料理 = food, cuisine
• 好み = preference

So 料理の好み means preference about food or food preference.

This use of の is very common in Japanese. It can show many relationships, such as:

• possession: 私の本 = my book
• category/type: 日本の車 = Japanese cars
• subject matter: 音楽の話 = a conversation about music

Here, it means something like preferences concerning food.

Both are related to liking, but they work differently.

• 好き is usually a na-adjective meaning liked or to like
• 好み is a noun meaning preference or taste

So:

• 料理が好きです = I like food / cooking
• 料理の好み = food preferences / taste in food

Because the sentence is talking about preferences as a general thing, 好み is the natural choice.

A more literal structure is:

• 料理の好みは = as for food preferences...

That sounds much more natural with a noun like 好み than with 好き.

人によって means depending on the person or from person to person.

Breakdown:

• 人 = person
• によって = depending on / according to / by

So the phrase says that the thing being discussed changes based on the person.

In this sentence:

• 料理の好みは人によって違います
• Food preferences differ depending on the person
• more natural English: People have different tastes in food

Here, によって shows that something varies according to a condition or category.

Pattern:

• A は B によって違う / 変わる
• A differs depending on B

In your sentence:

• 料理の好み = food preferences
• 人によって = depending on the person
• 違います = differ

So the full idea is:

• Food preferences differ depending on the person

This is a very common pattern. For example:

• 国によって習慣が違います。 = Customs differ from country to country.
• 季節によって天気が変わります。 = The weather changes depending on the season.

は marks 料理の好み as the topic of the sentence.

So the sentence is structured like:

• As for food preferences, they differ from person to person.

Using は helps present the general topic and then make a statement about it.

Compare:

• 料理の好みは人によって違います。 = As for food preferences, they differ depending on the person.

If you changed it to が, the nuance would be different and less natural here for a general statement. は is the normal choice when talking about something broadly or contrastively.

違います is the polite form of 違う, meaning to differ or to be different.

So:

• 料理の好みは人によって違います。 = Food preferences differ depending on the person.

This is a very natural and straightforward way to say it.

You could also say:

• 料理の好みには違いがあります。 = There are differences in food preferences.

That is also correct, but it sounds a little more formal or abstract.

The original sentence is simpler and more common in everyday Japanese.

It actually does, in a sense: によって is a set expression that includes に.

So this is not:

• 人 + separate particle + よって

It is:

• 人によって = depending on the person

You should learn によって as a chunk when it means:

• depending on
• according to
• by means of
• by

In this sentence, the meaning is depending on.

It can suggest any of those depending on context, but in this sentence it is best understood as food or dishes/cuisine.

So 料理の好み means:

• taste in food
• food preferences
• preferences in cuisine

If you translated it as cooking preferences, that might sound in English like preferences about how to cook, which is probably not the main idea here. The sentence is really about what kinds of food people like.

A very literal breakdown is:

• 料理の好みは = as for preferences in food
• 人によって = depending on the person
• 違います = differ

So the sentence is literally:

• As for food preferences, they differ depending on the person.

A more natural English translation would be:

• Food preferences vary from person to person.
• People have different tastes in food.

Yes. It sounds like a general statement about people in general.

Japanese often uses a simple topic + statement structure for general truths:

• 料理の好みは人によって違います。 = Food preferences vary from person to person.

It is natural in explanations, essays, class materials, and conversation when making a broad observation.

If you wanted to talk about a specific group, you could add that information, for example:

• 子どもは料理の好みが人によって違います。 = Children’s food preferences differ from child to child.

But the original sentence is already perfectly natural as a general statement.