Toll House Inn: Difference between revisions

Toll House Inn near Whitman, Massachusetts was established in 1930 by Kenneth and Ruth Graves Wakefield. It had been built in 1709 and had a rich history of providing a night's solace to weary travelers. Located about halfway between Boston and New Bedford, it was a place where had passengers had historically paid a toll, changed horses and ate much-welcomed home-cooked meals.

The Wakefields took it upon themselves to uphold the lodge's tradition. Ruth cooked all the food served and soon gained local fame for her desserts. In 1937, while adapting one of her recipes, Ms. Wakefield became the inventor of the first chocolate chip cookie using a bar of semi-sweet chocolate made by the Nestlé company. The new desert soon became very popular.

Ruth soon contacted the Nestlé and they struck a deal: The company would print her recipe on the cover of all their semi-sweet chocolate bars, and she would get a lifetime supply of chocolate. Nestlé soon began marketing chocolate chips especially used for cookies. Ruth wrote a cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, in 1940.

Ruth died in 1977, and the Toll House Inn burned down New Year's Eve of 1984, but her cookie lives on. Although there are many manufactures of chocolate chips today, the agreement to publish the recipe of Ruth Graves Wakefield on the back of each Nestlé Toll House chocolate bar package is still honored in the 21st century.