Me gusta lo que cocinas.

In Spanish, gustar works differently than “to like” in English. Rather than “I like X,” it’s more like “X pleases me.”

• Me is the indirect object pronoun (“to me”).
• Gusta agrees with the thing that pleases you (here, lo que cocinas).
  So literally it’s “Lo que cocinas pleases me,” which in English we render as “I like what you cook.”

Lo que is a neuter relative pronoun meaning “what” or “that which.”

• Lo is the neutral article/pronoun.
• Que is the relative pronoun.
  Together they introduce a clause: “lo que cocinas” = “what (it is) that you cook.”

Que alone means “that” or “which” when referring back to a specific noun. But here you want “the thing(s) that.”

• Lo que bundles “the thing(s)” + “that” into one pronoun.
• Without lo, you’d need an explicit noun: “Me gusta la comida que cocinas” (“I like the food that you cook”).

It’s part of the relative pronoun “lo que.”

• It does not function as a separate direct object for gustar.
• The only pronoun for gustar here is me.

Because you’re talking about what you habitually cook or cook right now.

• Cocinas (tú) = “you cook.”
• If you wanted to refer to the past, you could say “Me gustó lo que cocinaste” (I liked what you cooked).

Yes. In Spanish the subject pronoun (tú) is usually optional because the verb ending already shows who you mean.

• Adding tú gives extra emphasis or clarity: “Me gusta lo que tú cocinas.”

Yes, you can, because Spanish allows greater flexibility.

• Lo que cocinas me gusta is still correct but sounds a bit more formal or poetic.
• The most natural everyday order is Me gusta lo que cocinas.