This idea of course is probably related to Proust and À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) and its early scene of memory being sparked by a Madeleine. So I think the idea is pretty wide spread among people that food and smell works this way with memory, but does it really or do people just believe it does without really experiencing it?
For what it's worth the closest I've ever gotten with this is eating Camembert, sometimes when I have Camembert I think of the first times I had it in a small cafe in the black forest in Germany, but I don't have this memory from the taste, I have it because I look at the Camembert and I think that time, the taste does nothing for my memory (although perhaps if I tasted it blindfolded, I might think that is camembert I remember the first time I had that in Germany)
but ye food for me evokes significant memories, not just day to day memories. i guess significance and sentimental value is a factor.