I think the show you are referring to is Top Chef and actually that comment about American Food was made by one of the contestants, Micah, during a recent “special” episode. This episode brought back the chefs that have already been eliminated for a “reunion”
Micah was eliminated from the competition in an episode that featured “Classic American Dishes”
The accent is supposedly South African, although she grew up in New England.
Well, truly there is a thread of English (UK) Culinary tradition that ties much of the Eastern Half of America together. So it is a bit Ironic. But it sounds to me you are talking about Micah, so really that is a Afrikaans-Dutch culinary ethnology.
How does that old joke go?
In heaven:
The cooks are French
The police are British
The infrastructure is run by Germans
The bankers are Swiss
In hell:
The cooks are British…
You mind if I slobber alongside you?
You have to admit, though, that Americans don’t cook as much as other nations.
An anecdote: shortly after moving to the U.S., my wife and I were watching TV and a character said that she cooked something “from scratch.” My wife, who is not a native English speaker, asked me what “scratch” meant.
“It’s what we call ‘ingredients’”, I said.
My point being, because Americans use so many processed foods, they have to use a phrase like “cooking from scratch” where others would just say “cooking”.
(Not that I don’t love actual American cooking, of course. Any nation that can invent hash browns is obviously doing something right).
Or maybe it’s just easier to cook in the States. We may offer more items to eat at one meal. Southern cooks are known for having lots of foods on the table.
One of my favorite American inventions is the simple Waldorf salad.
Do other countries have chicken salad? There are a jillionteen ways to make it.
Fried green tomatoes
The Dagwood sandwich
popcorn
peanuts
mac and cheese (with a really good sharp cheddar)
homegrown tomatoes in a BLT (oh! oh!)
Do other countries make samores?
shrimp po’ boy in LaFayette
boudin
chess pie, pecan pie, chocolate pie
patty melt
Boiled bread? Bwuh?
Midwestern is bad stuff. But it’s still better than English!
When I went traveling, I didn’t have a bad meal, no matter how little I paid, in Italy or Spain or France, didn’t have a good one in Germany for any price, and the only decent, edible food I got in England was at an Indian place.
But obviously the Germans and the English like what they cook so YMMV.
ETA: I got so desperately hungry in Germany that I actually ate at a McDonald’s (or something purporting to be McD’s) and it was lousy too.
The Funny thing about Ketchup is that it was invented by the Indians, shipped by the Dutch (spice), popularized by the English, and perfected by the Americans.
But Indian food is English food ;).
I mean, you don’t really see “English” restaurants around, apart from a few upmarket places where they update traditional dishes (and cook them properly). If you want decent traditional English grub, pub food is the way to go. Admittedly, it depends on the pub - some are terrible, some are excellent. Even there, there will be a lot of things like Cajun chicken and lasagne among the roast beef and steak & chips.
Last time I ate out, was Sunday roast + all trimmings. I had beautifully cooked rare beef, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding and veg, he had pork and crackling. My friend and I were later joined by an American and German couple who had roast lamb and chicken and both loved it.
Other recent highlights:
a cheese (all English) and fruit platter along and excellent pint of Tanglefoot.
Curry at my local Indian, the (Bangledeshi) chef likes to invent dishes. I often used to take one of my Indian students, and none of the specials were in and way familiar to him.
bubble & squeak with a pint of beer for brunch here (I’ve previously had smoked salmon and scrabled eggs and steak and chips, all very good)
Don’t get me wrong - I think homecooked American food is wonderful. I just wish more Americans ate it.
I heard it as:
"In Heaven, the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian, and the whole operation is organized and run by the Swiss.
In Hell, the police are German, the cooks are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and the whole operation is organized and run by the Italians."
I believe I saw it arrtributed to Casanova, but I don’t have a cite handy.
All of these are legitimate entries but it falls far short of the total. For example Southern Lousiana has not only cajun food like you listed but also Louisiana creole and New Orleans itself has a world class food stype on its own (odd fact: New Orleans isn’t even located in cajun territory and is mostly unrelated to it). San Francisco has its own cuisine as well. I have seen both New Orleans and San Franciso listed as the best food cities in the world in serious food critic survery and, even when they aren’t number one, they are usually near the top.
There is another very serious flaw that is so widespread that people don’t even realize what is wrong with it. It is people looking at Tex-mex food or Italian-American food and comparing it against “real” Mexican and Italian food. There are actually so many problems even with this concept that it is FUBAR and illogical even if you wanted to make such a comparison. Instead, the correct thinking should be that Tex-Mex and Italian American are American food categories and have as long a history in what is now the U.S. as all the others. Texas was part of Mexico for a long time after all. Pizza as people generally know it is an American invention.
A careful analysis should show that the U.S. among the broadest and best food in the world. I would say the best but I don’t know the cilinary history of every other country.
And we can wash it all down with a big shot of Kentucky Bourbon.
Where were you in Germany? I spent a few months in Nuremberg. One thing I learned is that there is no one, single German cuisine. Just like the regional cooking in the U.S., there are regions in Germany. I had some great Franconian food.
It helps if you like pork.
I stand amended. Then there’s the whole midwest thing, but I refuse to recognize anything containing jello and marshmallow salad as a “cuisine.” 
One could argue that Chinese food is American, as it uses local ingredients and was largely invented here way back in the railroad days.
Hawaiian cuisine is an interesting creature. Kailua pig and poi go back a long way, but the rest of it is pretty new, being a fusion of (IIRC) Chinese, Japanese, Californian, and Spanish cuisines, but using uniquely Hawaiian ingredients.
American dishes are so prevalent that people eating them usually think they’re foreign. Go to a Chinese restaurant and you get American food, right down to the fortune cookie. Same with Mexican, Italian and many other kinds of “ethnic” foods.
I didn’t know about the fortune cookie, but I figured most Chinese restaurant fare originated with some Asian guy thinking, “What can I feed these schmucks that is cheap but looks exotic?”
Here’s how I remember it:
In Heaven:
The Cooks are Italian
The Bankers are Swiss
The Mechanics are German
The Lovers are French
The Policemen are British
In Hell:
The Cooks are British
The Bankers are Italian
The Mechanics are French
The Lovers are Swiss
The Policemen are German