Wakefield, Ruth Graves (1903-1977), an American innkeeper, invented the chocolate chip cookie. Such cookies became known as “Toll House” cookies after her inn, the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.
Ruth Jones Graves was born on June 17, 1903, in East Walpole, Massachusetts. She graduated from Framington State Normal School in 1924. After graduation, she worked as a dietitian and lectured about foods.
In 1930, Ruth and her husband, Kenneth Wakefield, purchased a house that had served as a toll house in colonial times. The Wakefields converted this house into the Toll House Inn. Ruth cooked homemade meals and desserts, which became particularly popular. They included a kind of cookie called “butter drop do cookies.” One day, while making these cookies, she ran out of baker’s chocolate. She had on hand a bar of Nestlé’s semisweet chocolate, which is sweeter than baker’s chocolate. Wakefield chopped this bar up and added it to the dough, expecting it to melt. Instead, the chocolate chunks remained intact. The new cookies became popular, and a Boston newspaper published the recipe.
Wakefield and the Nestlé company came to an agreement that allowed Nestlé to print the cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate bar wrapper. In exchange, Wakefield received free Nestlé’s semisweet chocolate for the rest of her life. Wakefield died on Jan. 10, 1977.
