Who Invented Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Chocolate Chips Cookies was invented by Ruth Wakefield, an Innkeeper in the 1930's.

Ruth Graves Wakefield graduated from the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts in 1924. She worked as a dietitian and lectured on food. Later she and her husband bought a tourist lodge named the Toll House Inn. Ruth Wakefield prepared the recipes for the meals she served to guests at the Inn and gained local notoriety for her deserts.

One of her favorite recipes was for Butter Drop Dough cookies. The recipe called for the use of baker's chocolate and one day Ruth found herself without the needed ingredient. She substituted a semi-sweet chocolate bar cut up into bits. However, unlike the baker's chocolate, the chopped up chocolate bar did not melt completely, the small pieces only softened.

The chocolate bar she used had been a gift from Andrew Nestle of the Nestle Chocolate Company. As the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe became popular, sales of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bar increased. Andrew and Ruth struck a deal. Nestle would print the Toll House Cookie recipe on its packaging and Ruth Wakefield would have a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate.

The official state cookie of Massachusetts is the chocolate chip cookie, invented in 1930 at the Toll House Restaurant.

Back to Q&A Index - Internet Cookbook