Function of は in にはなる


The author is complaining that she hates men's cooking but acknowledges that
somewhere in the world there may be some that she likes. She then says:

> だからただしくは、今まで喰らってきた男の料理を私は好きに **は** なれなかった、と言うべきなんだろう。  
>  However, more accurately, I should probably say that I haven't come to like
> any of the men's cooking that I've eaten up until now.

I don't understand the function of the は in bold. I assume it's contrastive
but I don't see what is being contrasted. I must admit that I'm not 100% happy
with the は in ただしくは either. Perhaps it's related but I don't see how.

In fact the part I would expect to be contrasted, given the context, is 今まで.
That's where I (no doubt wrongly) would have put the は. Confused.




It modifies 好きになれなかった and adds an emphasis that the statement relates only to
好きに.

To explain by example,

[code]

    気持ち悪くはなかったけど、ちょっとしんどかった
    美味しくはなかったけど、まずくもなかった
    
[/code]

In both cases は is used to signify that you didn't feel something, but did
feel something else. The effect persists if you just say: `気持ち悪くはなかった` the
implication is that while you didn't feel nauseous, you did feel something
else (probably a bit weak etc. which is inferred from the context).

This effect was then adapted as a softner. For example, to limit the rudeness
of the statement `あの子は賢くない`, you can say `あの子は賢くはない`. Both state the same
thing but the latter is less harsh because it implies there may be some other
redeeming virtues (or to interpret differently, the speaker is implicitly
adding `(I don't know about other aspects so this statement only relates to
the aspect I know which is the kids' intelligence)`.

Back to your example, it acts as a softner. The author might have just added
it solely to soften the sentence, or implies there is some positive feeling
he/she had regarding the cooking (maybe he/she at least felt grateful or
whatever).




It modifies 好きになれなかった and adds an emphasis that the statement relates only to
好きに.

To explain by example,

[code]

    気持ち悪くはなかったけど、ちょっとしんどかった
    美味しくはなかったけど、まずくもなかった
    
[/code]

In both cases は is used to signify that you didn't feel something, but did
feel something else. The effect persists if you just say: `気持ち悪くはなかった` the
implication is that while you didn't feel nauseous, you did feel something
else (probably a bit weak etc. which is inferred from the context).

This effect was then adapted as a softner. For example, to limit the rudeness
of the statement `あの子は賢くない`, you can say `あの子は賢くはない`. Both state the same
thing but the latter is less harsh because it implies there may be some other
redeeming virtues (or to interpret differently, the speaker is implicitly
adding `(I don't know about other aspects so this statement only relates to
the aspect I know which is the kids' intelligence)`.

Back to your example, it acts as a softner. The author might have just added
it solely to soften the sentence, or implies there is some positive feeling
he/she had regarding the cooking (maybe he/she at least felt grateful or
whatever).

