How does someone with no experience learn to make food?

Try to deliberately learn something each time you cook.

Feel like curry? YouTube how to make it from raw spices.

Feel like soup? YouTube how to make your own stock.

Didn't like a meal? Ask yourself what you didn't like.

Was it the texture? Cooking time? a particular ingredient?
If it was an ingredient, learn about other ways to prepare that ingredient, or find another version of that recipe and do it slightly different next time.

Once you learn a bunch of recipes you start to acquire techniques and knowledge of how flavours balance and interact. These days if I want to make something I will find 5 versions of that recipe, see what's common, what's unique. I'll use only the bits I want because I have a feel for the general flavours, what I like / don't like, what I can be bothered buying.

So, learn new recipes on YouTube, start to play around with them. Try to watch videos where they are actual qualified chefs who explain not just how but why they do something. For example, some basic tips and tricks videos from Gordon Ramsey. Consider buying some high quality essentials to start with - a knife, chopping board, a pot and a pan will do.

Above all, give yourself time. You gain confidence when you know what works only after years of trial and error.