In 1979, Martha Rossini Olson built a homespun recipe for chocolate chip cookies into a Minnesota State Fair juggernaut.
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In 1979, Martha Rossini Olson pitched an idea for a vendor booth to the Minnesota State Fair. What about soft serve frozen yogurt? This lower calorie ice cream alternative was all the rage in the health-conscious atmosphere of the late 1970s, when people were squeezing into short shorts and matching track suits and learning how to love jogging and pumping iron at the gym. But nope, the State Fair passed on her idea. It already had a frozen yogurt vendor. Bummer. But Martha put in another pitch, and that one got the go ahead. The trouble was she and her partners only had three weeks until the fair opened. Their idea? Chocolate chip cookies, just like your grandma made. Martha sampled several recipes, took the best ideas and came up with a soft, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth cookie served in a paper cone. It became the food hit of that year's fair. Sweet Martha's Cookies, now also served in an overflowing bucket, has become the fair's biggest selling vendor in a Minnesota summertime tradition.
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