Addenda:

OK, according to this interview, her background is actually more complex: "She was born in America at her mother's insistence, but the family traveled and lived throughout the world, which helped to expand her culinary curiosity and skills, Micah said."

Which is not unheard of, and I think explains some of the seeming contradictions.

sytycd

Oh, I love Cedric and I will be the happiest person in the world if the Debbie Allen scholarship actually pans out. I just don't think he is right for this show.

A world of this. I was really impressed with his attitude, and loved the way Nigel pushed the scholarship on Debbie Allen. I think Cedric will actually do better in school, though. I think Cedric thinks that at this point, and don't think he would be upset to be cut.

And given the short notice and other points mentioned above, I thought Melanie was fantastic. Just imagine how she would do in a dance choreographed for her own strengths and, you know, more than a couple of hours notice.

Oh, I think it totally could be sold as such, though. Not that the Elks would buy it, necessarily, but for chefs? Sure. It would be more so than Sara's chicken skewer thing!

Although I don't know that cooking or not cooking changes the cholesterol level of meat.

I can see that. Maybe I'm just being too literal (much like our chefs last night). I also have no idea if crudo would have lower cholesterol. Then again I had peanut butter cup ice cream pie for lunch, so . . .

Well, not adding fat would keep the cholesterol level at base.

Just -- she comes from a Commonwealth country: are they not familiar with dishes from the old country such as Shepherd's Pie? Would that not be something like a meatloaf w/mashed potatoes?

Ooh, a South African dish that is very much like meatloaf.

(Thanks to the Twopsters for finding this.)

I think comfort food is fairly regional in America.

Yup, and also what megan said -- raised by one native-born child of immigrants and one third-generation native, our main homemade comfort foods as kids were meat loaf, roast chicken, and all the Italian and Greek comfort foods that had been passed down through the families, very little altered from the moment our olive-skinned ancestors hopped off their boats. I've had tuna casserole maybe three times in my life, always while visiting at the home of a more distinctly WASPy friend whose parents had migrated to CA from somewhere in the middle, and I have no idea what chicken a la king is at all.

I can't remember what Micah had to choose from but Sarah had a number of dishes that she could choose.

Perhaps none of them resembled anything familiar to her.

What is Jamaican comfort food?

I think I'm about as WASP-y as you can get, but I don't think I've ever had tuna casserole. And Minnesota is the king-of-casseroles.

So far, chicken ala king seems to be the comfort food people have had the least.

(I was surprised that there were no chicken fingers!)

Was there spaghetti? Or mac-'n'cheese?

there was mac and cheese with the fried chicken