The United States is traditionally credited with creating the modern chocolate-chip cookie.
The cookie is associated with Ruth Graves Wakefield, who co-owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, she added chopped chocolate to a cookie mixture, producing the confection that became known as the chocolate-chip cookie. Nestlé later helped popularize the recipe and sold chocolate pieces intended for baking.
The story is often simplified into the claim that Wakefield expected the chocolate to melt completely. In practice, the pieces remained distinct, creating the cookie's defining texture. The details of the original recipe's development and the later business arrangement have been discussed in different historical accounts.
Chocolate-chip cookies are now made worldwide, but their standard origin story places them in the United States during the 1930s. They should not be confused with generic chocolate cookies, which may contain cocoa in the dough rather than separate chocolate chips.