Sarah Emery Hooper (1822–1914) was an American activist and educator known for founding the Boston Cooking School.
[2] During the American Civil War, she worked closely with the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), a private relief agency created by federal legislation in 1861 to support sick and wounded soldiers.
According to Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln, the first principal of the Boston Cooking School:[4] The determining influence in the organization of the Boston Cooking School was the return of Mrs. Sarah E. Hooper from a long sojourn in Australia.
As a result, the Boston Cooking School opened on March 10, 1879, at 158½ Tremont Street.
[4] The school became famous following the 1896 publication of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by its principal at the time, Fannie Merritt Farmer.