Ever Wondered Who First Invented Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Fanatics of Friends absolutely cannot forget the part that chocolate chip cookies have to play in the series. You remember, Phoebe’s grandmother passed down a special recipe by a French ancestor Nestle Toulouse. Turns out, a woman really did invent chocolate chip cookies (like so many great inventions) and Nestle bought them – the Toll House cookie.

There has been speculation that Ruth Graves Wakefield discovered chocolate chip cookies on accident. However, as reported by The Vintage News, that’s not the case. In reality, Wakefield stated that she deliberately invented the cookie. She said, “We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie.”

In fact, Wakefield was also the author of a best-selling cookbook Toll House Tried and True Recipes, that went through 39 printings starting in 1930. The 1938 edition of the cookbook was the first to include the recipe for a chocolate chip cookie, the “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie”.

As the popularity of the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie increased, the sales of Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate bars also spiked. Hence, Andrew Nestlé and Ruth Wakefield entered into a business arrangement: Wakefield gave Nestlé the right to use her cookie recipe and the Toll House name for one dollar and a lifetime supply of Nestlé chocolate.

That’s right, she earned only $1 (she was a successful author, she didn’t need the money) but she gained a lifetime of chocolate, I’d say she made the right choice, wouldn’t you?