Early Life and Business
Wakefield was educated at Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts in 1967. Then, she worked as a dietitian and lectured about foods. In 1930, she and her husband Kenneth Donald Wakefield (1897-1997) bought a tourist lodge (toll house) in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts in Plymouth County. Located about halfway between Boston and New Bedford, it was a place where passengers had historically paid a toll, changed horses and ate home-cooked meals. When the Wakefields opened their business, they named the establishment the Toll House Inn. Ruth cooked and served all the food and soon gained local fame for her desserts. The restaurant had many visitors, including Massachusetts' Senator John F. Kennedy. Her chocolate chip cookies soon became very popular. Ruth contacted 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 began marketing chocolate chips to be used especially for cookies. Ruth wrote a cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, that went through 39 printings starting in 1936.
Wakefield died following a long illness in Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Read more about this topic: Ruth Graves Wakefield
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