Andrew F. Smith

Boston Cooking School

Appears in
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

By Andrew F. Smith

Published 2004

  • About
The Boston Cooking School began as a charitable endeavor by the Women’s Educational Association to teach cooking to poor women. Begun with seven students, it widened its scope to include homemakers, and by 1882 there were nearly four hundred students.

Volunteer women ran the school, but the beginning teaching staff consisted of experienced teachers. Joanna Sweeney, who had given cooking classes in Boston, and Maria Parloa, a noted cooking authority and author, were the first two teachers. They trained Mary Lincoln, who then became another teacher. She became well known for her Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book, written as a textbook for her classes.Fannie Farmer, who became principal in 1894, was first a pupil and then an assistant principal.