About Me

Hello! I’m Kelsey; a 28-year-old food scientist with an unhealthy obsession for everything pink, chocolate, and Parisian. I cannot stop collecting fantastic books and recipes; nor can I stop analyzing them to figure out what makes them tick. Currently I live in San Francisco, CA, and you can often find me geeking out about cacao origins or pet nat wine production.

Food has always been special to me since birth. This was apparent at my high school graduation party when 80% of the pictures showcased me admiring a meal. Since my first messy experience with cake as a toddler, I have become more interested in what food was and why it was so delicious.

Food science is something I think about every time I look at food. It’s become second nature to see a cookie and recognize that the combination of many complex reactions created the texture, taste, color, and aroma that manifests itself like magic as a simple cookie. I’ve discovered that food and ingredients camouflage themselves to the world as being utterly easy when they are anything but.

This blog is dedicated to the exploration of fantastic food with a little scientific jargon and personal style thrown in for good measure.

9. The Unicorn Treat

You can think of this blog as your nerdy resource for anything related to food, cooking, ingredient science, or general cocktail chatter. Science friend, hey-o! With each post, I focus on one component that has a considerable impact on the final dish, glass of wine, etc. Sometimes I get on a roll and go really deep. You can find those ramblings in the ‘In Appreciation of‘ recipe category if you’re interested in browsing the deeeeep science. Otherwise, I try my best to make the chemistry or microbiology relate-able and fun to read about. Hopefully you get excited about it too and want to read more! Or not, that’s totally fine.

I’ve been writing this blog for seven years now, so I usually link to previous posts that may also touch on something relevant where appropriate to give a bigger picture behind the kitchen science. In other words, I may take a moment to discuss chocolate chips in a cookie recipe, but I link to an older post from the archives about what oven spring or Maillard browning is.

PS you may also be wondering why the blog has peas as a focus in the title in addition to science. Even though I love all sweet things, peas are even more addicting to me. I eat them fresh, frozen, pureed, freeze-dried, and canned—surprisingly my favorite. (I know, I’m weird) They remain my most treasured food, and thus, are a big inspiration for my food adventures.

Favorite scientific reactions:

Maillard Browning—responsible for such gems as browned butter and toast!

Starch gelatinization—a key component to the structure of most baked goods and why they are so wonderful straight out of the oven…(starch gelation is the little bugger that make them not so great after cooling)

Photography: As of right now, I only have my wonderful iPhone to take pictures. But, you can view some more photos at my VSCO grid.

Press and Freelance

You can also read more from me on other sites–ranging from the science-y to the food-y, and everything in between. Enjoy! If you’d like to work with me, email me at appeasingafoodgeek@gmail.com

For Science Meets Food, Reflections on Bitter February 2015

For Chews-Worthy, What Makes Popcorn Pop March 2015

For Science Meets Food, Is Fat the Sixth Taste? March 2015

For Science Meets Food, The Food Cold War April 2015

For Food52, How to Make Lemon Curd May 2015

For Food52, Be Like Ben & Jerry: Make Core Ice Cream July 2015

Featured by Food52, Food Blog Links we Love October 2015

Featured by Food52, Food Blog Links we Love January 2016

For Food52, Homemade Teddy Graham-Inspired Cookies for Grown Ups February 2016

For Red Valentino, Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread is Redilicious May 2016

For Red Valentino, Asparagus and Pancetta Quiche is Redilicious May 2016

For Red Valentino, Blueberry Lemon Basil Sorbet is Redilicious June 2016

For Penn State, Master’s Thesis Manuscript May 2016

For Don’t Eat the Pseudoscience, MSG: Friend or Foe June 2016

For my Master’s Research, Binding of Caffeine and Quinine by Whey Protein and the Effect on Bitterness January 2017

For Edible Long Island, The Science Behind H2Os Magic in East Islip April 2017

For Edible Long Island, A Clam-Sorting Equipment Company Grows in Bohemia May 2017

For Edible Long Island, At Long Island Spirits, Distillation is an Artful Science September 2017

For Nassau Candy, Sweet Science–6 Top-selling Types of Gummies

For Food52, The Legendary All-in-One-Pot-Pasta gets a Fall Refresh

For Univar Food Ingredients, Natural Vanilla Alternatives

For Univar Food Ingredients, Phosphates For Baking

For Univar Food Ingredients, Vegan Ingredients

For Klee, Salty-Spicy Summer Fruit Salad

For Univar Food Ingredients, How Technology is Shaping the Farm-to-Table Trend

For Univar Food Ingredients, Bringing Together Clean Label Preservation Through Fermentation

For Chew Innovation, Chocolate Sourcing Driving Change

For Univar Food Ingredients, Clean Label Bakery: Replacing Propionates

For Chew Innovation, Our Approach + Late-Summer Cornbread

For Nassau Candy, Battle of the Gummies: Pectin vs. Gelatin

For Edible Boston, The Future of Food January 2019

For In Defense of Processed Food, Cultured Meat Production March 2019

For Edible Boston: The North Shore Roast Beef Sandwich. This illustration is from my friend Chelsea Damraska–follow her at csd_works on Instagram!

For Edible Boston: Ipswich Fried Clams. This illustration is from my friend Chelsea Damraska–follow her at csd_works on Instagram!