The Cookie - Marcel Proust

The excerpt, "The Cookie", from Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, is a piece that explores a man's journey down memory lane, trying to pinpoint the time in his life where he first tried the madeline that was causing him such pleasure. "Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it?" 

It all began when he accepted tea from his mother which he normally does not, and dips the madeline into the tea, which causes him deep pleasure."An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin." He finally remembers that the first time he has tried a madeline was with his aunt when he was a child. "And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom , my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. " He goes on to explain how the memories he is experiencing last forever because of the sensory details he experience during the time the memory was made such as taste and smell.

I can relate to what Proust is saying in his piece about food being able to tie you to memories from your past, and people often vividly remembering specific moments due to the feelings they were experiencing or food they were eating. This can be seen in people who eat comfort foods and how it brings them back to a time where they were calm and comfortable.