Farmer, Fannie (1857-1915)

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Fannie Farmer (1857-1915)

Cookbook author, nutritionist

Early Life. Born on 23 March 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, Fannie Farmer was the eldest of four daughters. At the age of sixteen Farmer contracted polio, which caused her left leg to become paralyzed. Her illness prevented her from pursuing her education after graduating from Medford High School. During a period of financial difficulty in the 1880s, Farmer worked as a mother’s helper in the home of a family friend, Mrs. Charles Shaw. The job changed Farmer’s life. Never having done any cooking at home, she took an interest in preparing meals and became a good cook. In 1887, encouraged by her employer, Farmer enrolled in the Boston Cooking School, which had been started in 1879 as part of the scientific-housekeeping movement. By the time Farmer graduated in 1889 at the age of thirty-two, the school had become so impressed by her talent that it hired her as assistant principal. She became principal in 1894, and in 1902 she resigned to open her own school, Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery.

Gaining a National Voice. Throughout the 1890s Farmer offered weekly cooking demonstrations for homemakers and professional cooks. Her popular lectures were regularly reprinted in the Boston Transcript and were soon syndicated in other papers. By the time she published The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book in 1896, she had already established a national reputation. The cookbook made her famous. It has since gone through eleven revised editions, sold nearly four million copies, and been translated into French, Spanish, and Japanese. Her emphasis on nutrition and diet as preventive health measures was unique at that time. Her specific directions and standardized, level measurements, such as teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups, made cooking easier for women, who had previously relied on cookbooks that used measurements such as “pinches” or “handfuls” in their recipes.

Writing and Speaking. Farmer reached many thousands of women with her cookbooks. In addition to the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book she also published books such as Chafing Dish Possibilities (1898) and What to Have for Dinner (1905). For ten years she and her sister, Cora Dexter Farmer Perkins, wrote a column for Woman’s Home Companion. Farmer believed her most important work was Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent (1904), in which she emphasized the importance of diet for good health. She gave lectures for nurses and at various New England hospitals, trained hospital dieticians, and once taught a yearlong course on cooking for invalids at the Harvard Medical School.

Later Life. Farmer continued to lecture even after losing the ability to walk. She died on 15 January 1915 at age fifty-seven, but her school continued until World War II food rationing caused it to shut down.