Chemistry, Economics and Gourmet Food! Oh, My!

UCR Chemistry Chair Cindy Larive and daughter Erin Kaplan, an economist at Pitt, come together to create The Food Doctors, a blog about great food and the science and economics that make it possible

By Ross French on August 29, 2012

Cindy Larive, the chair of the UC Riverside Department of Chemistry (left) and daughter Erin Kaplan, a professor of economics at Pittsburgh, have come together to create a blog on gourmet food and the chemistry and economics behind its creation. Photo courtesy of Erin Kaplan

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) Cindy Larive, chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, is well known for her work in bioanalytical chemistry, including research on the stress response of plants to flooding and drought and methods for detecting whether fruit juices have been watered down with cheaper ingredients. But recently, its her work on the buttermilk pancake that has been taking the Web by storm.

Specifically, Buttermilk Pancakes with Mixed Berry Compote and Sweet Vanilla Butter.

Larive and her daughter, Erin Kaplan, a visiting lecturer in economics at the University of Pittsburgh, are co-creators of The Food Doctors, a blog devoted not merely to creating amazing food, but also to the science and economics that make that amazing food possible.

The blog was conceived last spring as Kaplan and Larive were hiking in Cinque Terre National Park in Italy. Kaplan had recently won a dessert-making competition and had one of her recipes featured on the How Sweet It Is blog. As they explored the park, Erin suggested starting a blog of their own. Naturally, they came up with the blogs framework during dinner.

We wanted to create something more academic than the average food blog a place where we could geek out over food and maybe teach people a little bit along the way, Kaplan said. Teaching economics comes very naturally to me, and I know my mother feels the same passion about chemistry. It was kind of a perfect storm.

Creating great food has always been a major part of life for Larive and her daughters, dating back to when she was completing her Ph.D. here at UCR and Kaplan and sister Megan were students at the UCR pre-school. Erin recalls that she religiously watched Julia Child: Bon Apptit, convinced that the master chef was a long-lost grandmother.

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Chemistry, Economics and Gourmet Food! Oh, My!