Farmer, Fannie

Fannie Merritt Farmer (1857–1915) emerged from the domestic science movement to become the most famous cooking expert of her time, in part by harnessing the brisk, businesslike methods of “scientific cookery” to a cuisine of sweetness and affluence. She was born in Boston on 23 March 1857 to the bookish family of a struggling printer. A bout of childhood polio cut short her education and left her with a limp, making her an unlikely candidate for either marriage or a career. At age thirty-one she decided to attend the Boston Cooking School, whose graduates were busy across the country teaching in public schools, settlement houses, and other institutions dedicated to raising society’s morals by improving women’s domestic skills. She did so well that she became principal of the school in 1894.