Ruth Wakefield was the inventor of those delicious chocolate chip cookies you can’t get enough of. She was born in 1905 and began cooking and baking early in life. Before she invented her famous cookies, she actually worked as a dietician and food lecturer. Ruth started her own restaurant in Massachusetts with her husband. They called it the “Toll House Inn.”
One day, while making food for her restaurant visitors, she accidentally invented chocolate chip cookies! She had been making cookies and ran out of baking chocolate. Ruth had some semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate, so she figured that would work just as well. Turns out, it worked a bit differently and she had invented a new type of cookie!
Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie
She named the cookies “Toll House Crunch Cookies” and they became a big hit in her community. At the same time her cookies were selling out, there was a rise in people purchasing Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate. Nestlé and Ruth struck a deal.
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Ruth would hand over her recipe to Nestlé if they provided her with a lifetime supply of chocolate. They also printed her recipe on the back of the pack… which you can still find today! While Ruth died in 1977, her legacy definitely lives on. We wonder how much chocolate she ate and baked with in her lifetime!
Sadly, The Toll House Inn burned down in 1984, but a sign and a plaque sit there to commemorate the spot where chocolate chip cookies were invented. In conclusion, learn more about the history of the chocolate chip cookie and the other employees that helped bake the first batch: