Elizabeth Goodfellow

Elizabeth Goodfellow (c1767-1851), generally called Mrs. Goodfellow, started one of the first cooking schools in America. She taught classes for thirty years, and her recipes and techniques were passed on for generations in the cookbooks of one of her students, Eliza Leslie. Goodfellow also ran a renowned bakery and confectionery in Philadelphia during the first fifty years of the 19th century.

Very little is known about Mrs. Goodfellow’s life. By 1801 she was married and conducting business on Dock Street, Philadelphia, as Elizabeth Pearson, pastry cook. Her daughter, Sarah Anne Pearson Bouvier (1800-1826) had been born the year before. Robert Coane, her second husband, and she had a son Robert Coane (1804-1877) who would become a partner in the store in 1837. Lastly, she married William Goodfellow, a clockmaker, in 1808, but he died ten years later. According to her obituary, Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow died on January 5, 1851 at age 83 in Philadelphia, so she was most likely born in 1767.

For a half century her highly successful shop was located on three streets: Dock, South Second and finally Sixth Street, moving further from the Delaware River docks each time. She was well known for her pies and cakes, particularly Lemon Pies, Cocoanut Pies, Spanish Buns and Jumbles (later, recipes for those in particular, labeled with the famous name ‘Mrs. Goodfellow,’ appeared in several cookbooks). Her reputation soon led to her teaching cooking classes, with equally positive results, lasting thirty years.

Daughters from wealthy families attended her classes as a part of their education to prepare to enter society. One of her students from a prominent family, Susan Israel Painter (1790-1845), the daughter of Revolutionary War General Joseph Israel from Delaware graduated in 1807, and married four years later. Many of her handwritten recipes were included in the Colonial Receipt Book: Celebrated Old Receipts Used a Century Ago by Mrs Goodfellow’s Cooking School.

Another student, Eliza Leslie (1787-1858), compiled her teacher’s recipes into the first of many extremely popular cookbooks, Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats in 1828. Leslie took two of Goodfellow's courses sometime after her father died and her mother was forced to manage a succession of boarding houses. As a student, she took many notes, and over the years, friends would ask her for copies. Her brother suggested that she compile some of them into a book so she did not have to copy the recipes each time.

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