Joseph Lee was a pioneer in the automation of bread and breadcrumb making in the late 1800s. He invented machines for use in the hospitality industry that automated the mixing and kneading of bread dough, and that created crumbs from day-old loaves. Born in Charleston, S.C. in 1849, Lee was enslaved for the first 10 years of his life. As a boy, he worked at a bakery, prepping, cooking and serving food. Later, he would work as a waiter, and a cook. He soon began preparing, cooking and serving food. Lee became a blacksmith during the Civil War, and after gaining his freedom, he worked as a servant in Beaufort, SC.
He then served for 11 years as a steward in the U.S. Coast Survey. Here, he was tasked with cooking and baking, and he gave particular attention to bread making. Lee married Christina Howard on May 12, 1875; they had four children. By the early 1880s, the self-educated Lee had become a successful entrepreneur. He owned and operated a number of restaurants, hotels and catering establishments in the Boston area. In this work, he found many problems to solve and processes to improve, driving him to also become an impactful inventor. Joseph Lee’s involvement in the food industry would lead to an revelation.
In 1894, Lee filed for his first patent, on a kneading machine that would streamline the process of producing uniform bread. A skilled chef and baker, Lee had observed that the best bread was produced by evenly kneaded dough. So his efficient machine was designed to “thoroughly mix and knead the dough and bring it to the desired condition without resorting to the tedious process of mixing and kneading the same by hand.” The machine not only mixed the ingredients, but also kneaded the dough. It was so fast and efficient it was able to perform the tasks of five or six men and did so more hygienically and at a much cheaper cost.
By using “two oppositely revolving conveyers” the dough would be continuously moved to the center, where it was kneaded by pestles. A similar design can still be found in today’s automatic bread makers, which often use spinning paddles to evenly knead dough. It also produced a higher quality product, with a much better taste and texture. The other bakers of New York City trembled in their boots when they heard about Joseph’s new machine, certain that it would put them out of business. Joseph’s machine is the predecessor of bread-making machines still in use today. Lee eventually assigned the rights to his bread-kneading machine to The National Bread Co., and sold his bread-crumbing machine to The Goodell Co., and he passed his business on to his children.
Joseph Lee’s drive to invent did not stop with his kneading machine. Lee became very frustrated at what he saw as a waste of bread which would have to be thrown out if it was as much as a day old. Considered a master cook, he had long believed that crumbs from bread was quite useful in preparing food, as opposed to cracker crumbs which many others favored. Why waste it by throwing stale bread away, he would use it to make bread crumbs? He thus set out to invent a device that could automate tearing, crumbling and grinding the bread into crumbs. He filed for a patent on his “bread crumbing machine, in late 1894 and on June 4, 1895, he successfully secured the patent.
The bread crumbs was used for various dishes including croquettes, batter for cakes, fried chops, fried fish and more. Lee soon sold the rights to his bread crumbling machine and the Royal Worcester Bread Crumb Company of Boston soon had the devices in major restaurants around the world. In the late 1880s he owned and managed the Woodland Park Hotel in Newton, Massachusetts for 17 years. The hotel was well-regarded and those who stayed in it included prominent members of society including presidents Benjamin Harrison, Chester A. Arthur, and Grover Cleveland. Due to a severe economic depression, due to the the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, Lee gave up the Woodland Park Hotel in 1896.
Lee’s breadcrumber was widely adopted; the National Inventors Hall of Fame writes that within five years of its invention it “was used by many of America’s leading hotels and was a fixture in hundreds of the country’s leading catering establishments. In 1902, as a way of maintaining an involvement in the food services industry, Lee opened a catering business called the Lee Catering Company which served the wealthy population of Boylston Street in the Back Bay. At the same time he also operated the Squantum Inn, a summer resort in South Shores specializing in seafood, which was visited by numerous politicians.
The catering business was a great success and during this time he became interest in eliminating a situation that had become annoying to him. Later that year Lee patented an improvement to his bread machine, offering superior kneading action that closely approximated the work of human hands. By decreasing waste and increasing productivity, each of Lee’s innovative bread machines made a significant impact, allowing businesses to operate at a larger capacity and with higher efficiency. Joseph Lee’s contributions made a substantial difference on the food industry. Joseph Lee died in 1905, and will always be remembered as a food preparation pioneer that overcame adversity and achieve his dreams.