Ruth Graves Wakefield
Ruth Graves Wakefield[edit | edit source]
Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903–1977) was an American chef, best known as the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie. She was also a cookbook author and a television chef.
Early Life[edit | edit source]
Wakefield was born on June 17, 1903, in Easton, Massachusetts. She graduated from the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts in 1924.
Career[edit | edit source]
In 1930, Wakefield and her husband Kenneth bought a tourist lodge named the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. Here, Wakefield cooked meals for the guests.
The invention of the chocolate chip cookie happened in 1938 when Wakefield was making a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies. The recipe called for melted chocolate, but Wakefield had run out of baker's chocolate. She substituted it with chopped up pieces of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate, expecting it to melt and absorb into the dough to create chocolate cookies. Instead, the chocolate pieces retained their individual form, softening to a moist, gooey melt, and the chocolate chip cookie was born.
Legacy[edit | edit source]
Wakefield's recipe, originally called "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies", was published in her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, and quickly became popular. During World War II, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Soon, hundreds of soldiers were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world requesting her recipe.
In 1939, Wakefield gave Nestle the right to use her cookie recipe and the Toll House name for one dollar and a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate. Nestle began marketing chocolate chips to be used especially for cookies and printing the recipe on the package.
Wakefield died on January 10, 1977, but her invention continues to be a beloved treat across the United States and the world. The chocolate chip cookie remains a favorite cookie in American households and is considered a classic.
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