Fannie Farmer

Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 March 1857 - 15 January 1915) was an American culinary expert whose Boston Cooking-School Cook Book became a widely used culinary text. Farmer was born in Medford, Massachusetts, USA, to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer, an editor and printer. Although she was the oldest of four daughters, born in a family that highly valued education and that expected young Fannie to go to college, she suffered a paralytic s... more

Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 March 1857 - 15 January 1915) was an American culinary expert whose Boston Cooking-School Cook Book became a widely used culinary text. Farmer was born in Medford, Massachusetts, USA, to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer, an editor and printer. Although she was the oldest of four daughters, born in a family that highly valued education and that expected young Fannie to go to college, she suffered a paralytic stroke at the age of 16 while attending Medford High School. Fannie could not continue her formal academic education; for several years, she was unable to walk and remained in her parents' care at home. During this time, Farmer took up cooking, eventually turning her mother's home into a boarding house that developed a reputation for the quality of the meals it served. At the age of 30, Farmer, now walking (but with a substantial limp that never left her), enrolled in the Boston Cooking School at the suggestion of Mrs. Charles Shaw. Farmer... less