The dish that comforts you may confuse someone whose comfort was cooked differently.

Comfort food is comfort because of who cooked it, not because of what it is. The dish carries a kitchen, a person, a period of being cared for, and none of that transfers to someone whose comfort was assembled from different ingredients. Offering yours can be genuinely warm and completely beside the point.

When you want to comfort someone, ask what their version is rather than supplying your own. The question is small and the answer is often something they have not eaten in years. And when someone offers you food that means nothing to you, take the gesture, since what they are handing over is not really the dish.