Who invented the chocolate chip cookie in the United States?

Ruth Graves Wakefield is credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie in the United States.

Wakefield and her husband operated the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, she added chopped Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate to a cookie recipe, expecting it to melt into the dough. Instead, the pieces retained much of their shape, creating the cookie now known as the chocolate chip cookie.

Nestlé later printed Wakefield’s recipe on its chocolate packages and supplied her with chocolate. The story is often simplified into the claim that she accidentally invented the cookie, but accounts differ about whether the result was entirely accidental.

The cookie became one of the best-known American baked goods. Its standard ingredients include flour, butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate pieces.