What is that “magic portal” capable of triggering this journey for you? For Tina, the owner of Lao, a restaurant specializing in traditional Chinese home cooking, in Turin, her “magic portal” is food.

“I’m very happy, like Italy is my second country, second home. But you know, in the heart, the deep side, there’s still a part missing. There’s always a hole missing when you are far away from home. It’s the only way for me to feel, to fix the hole. The food is the only thing.”

Did your heart just crack a little too?
Tina’s words are deeply relatable. Food is not just sustenance, it’s an essential part of our cultural identity, a way to reclaim and reaffirm who we are. It acts as a bridge to our homeland, our loved ones, and those places dear to us.

The science of flavor

Beyond its role in cultural identity, food carries a strong yet often unconscious connection to our memories. Tastes can instantly link us to people, moments, and emotions.
But how is this even possible? To understand this, I delved into the fascinating world of neurogastronomy and uncovered plenty of intriguing insights.
How about the basics? Neurogastronomy is a branch of neuroscience that studies how the brain perceives flavors and how this influences our behavior. While reading various articles, I came across something that blew my mind. Don’t tell me I was the only one who didn’t know this yet.

Secret of flavor:
dear brain, I feel tricked

Are you sitting down? Here’s the revelation: foods don’t actually have flavors. I know, it sounds absurd, but the reality is that our brain does all the work. When we eat, odor molecules travel to the brain, which gets busy creating smells and flavors through retronasal olfaction.

But that’s not the end of the story: as the brain maps these odors, it combines them with information from our other senses, sight, touch, hearing, and of course taste, to deliver a true sensory explosion. Essentially, our brain is like a hidden chef working behind the scene, or maybe even pulling one over on us.

Flavors don’t exist in the food itself; they are created by our brain. The perception of taste is a complicated process that doesn’t just involve the five senses, it also engages our memory, emotions, and past experiences. And this is precisely where the connection between food and memory comes into play.

A quick note

When we talk about “taste” and “flavor,” we often use them interchangeably, but they are actually very different concepts.

Taste refers to the five fundamental sensations perceived by the receptors on our tongue: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami. It’s a more “basic” experience, tied solely to the taste buds.
Flavor, on the other hand, is something much more complex. It includes taste but also involves smell, touch, sight, and even hearing. In other words, flavor is a multisensory combination that provides us with the full experience of what we eat.

If you’d like to dive deeper, click here.

Madeleine de Proust:
dear brain, I feel tricked (again)

A flavour or smell can leave a lasting mark in certain areas of the brain, evoking vivid and unexpected memories. This phenomenon has a poetic name: “Madeleine de Proust.” The term comes from Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time”, where Proust recalls his childhood and his aunt bringing him a madeleine dipped in tea as he woke up. Romantic, isn’t it?

The problem, though, is that I often experience tastes or smells that remind me of something, but I can’t quite figure out what it is. By this point, you’d think my brain would know and clue me in. Instead, it stays silent, leaving me frustrated.

What did we learn? 

Food isn’t just what keeps us alive, it can breathe life into our memories. It may seem like magic, but it’s all science.

So, what did we learn? Tina was right: eating something that brings back memories, emotions, places, or people we love is therapeutic.