By the 1880’s, many well-off Americans had begun to realize that industrialization was causing serious social, economic and political problems—swelling slums, festering factory towns and violent conflicts between labor and management. Progressives of this era believed solutions lay in improving the lives of the poor through various programs and reforms. The most influential of these was the New England Kitchen, a public kitchen established in Boston under the leadership of Ellen Richards. Its mission was to demonstrate bettering the lives of the laboring class through scientific cookery.

This model provided take-out food based on traditional New England cuisine with plain, but nutritious dishes such as pea soup, oatmeal, boiled dinners and custard. By the end of the second year, the New England Kitchen’s success had

prompted the opening of a branch in Boston’s North End, cooking classes for neighborhood women and medical students, and upon request, the sending out of insulated hot lunches to teachers, shop girls and factory workers. Favorable publicity inspired the opening of similar kitchens in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Providence. However, within five years, the majority of these experiments had quietly closed their doors or changed their form, their demise attributed mainly to a failure to take into account the food preferences of the many foreign cultures that made up much of their clientele. In the future, the efforts of those involved in food reform through scientific cookery would be focused on the middle and upper classes.