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Received today — 30 October 2026 ⏭

I tried the original 1893 brownie recipe at the Chicago hotel that invented it. It was nothing like a boxed mix.

✇Business Insider
By: Kristine Villarroel
30 October 2026 at 13:22
palmer house chicago brownie
Chicago's Palmer House serves the original 1893 brownie recipe it invented for the World's Fair.

Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider

  • The original brownie recipe was invented at Chicago's Palmer House hotel in 1893.
  • It was designed to be transported easily in lunchboxes for the Chicago World's Fair.
  • I visited the hotel to try the original brownie, which was rich in both chocolate and history.

When you think of vintage desserts, various ingredients suspended in Jell-O might come to mind. But a Chicago hotel serves one 1893 recipe that will be a lot more familiar to today's tastes: the brownie.

The Palmer House hotel, which is still open today, developed the first-ever brownie in its kitchen as part of the preparations for the World's Columbian Exposition, or Chicago's 1893 World's Fair. The decadent dessert was inspired by a Gilded Age socialite's quest for a treat that could be easily transported.

As a brownie enthusiast, I wanted to try this legendary recipe on a visit to the hotel last year — and I discovered the dessert was rich in both history and chocolate.

The Palmer House Hotel became a symbol of the city's resilience after the Great Chicago Fire.
historic palmer house chicago photo

Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

When the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 decimated the city's downtown, the Palmer House hotel had been open for less than a year.

Its swift reopening in 1873, when Gilded Age wealth rushed to rebuild the city, became a symbol for a city rising from the ashes.

Today, it operates as a Hilton hotel.

The World's Fair came to the city in 1893 to celebrate its grand rebuilding.
chicago worlds fair poster

Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

Beyond boosting the local economy, Chicago leaders hoped the event would show the world that the growing city had fully recovered from the 1871 fire.

The fair, which was held from May until October 1893, showcased international developments in technology, art, and transportation on the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and attracted over 27 million people to the city, per Choose Chicago.

The hotel chef created the original brownie at the direction of socialite Bertha Palmer.
bertha palmer

Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

The Palmer House owners, Potter and Bertha Palmer, were one of the wealthiest families in the Midwestern city during the Gilded Age.

In 1893, Bertha Palmer served as president of the fair's Board of Lady Managers, which gave wealthy women a voice in constructing and decorating the fair's Women's Building, showcasing the achievements of American women, among other tasks.

As part of her role, Bertha Palmer asked the hotel's chef to create a dessert that would be easy to transport in a lunchbox for the other society women serving on the fair's board.

The Palmer House brownie became a staple of the hotel and lasted long past the World's Fair.
palmer house brownie

Courtesy of Hiltons of Chicago

Although she didn't call it a brownie — the name wouldn't come until 1898, per the hotel — Bertha Palmer's dessert, which she directed to be "more unique than a piece of pie or cake" and "like a cookie, but denser and more decadent with chocolate," per the Hilton website, set the foundation for what is today one of America's favorite desserts.

While the chef's name wasn't preserved alongside the dessert's origin story, their creation lives on.

The original brownie recipe, which is available on the hotel's website, uses precise measurements of 60% dark couverture chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder.

The final brownie is covered with finely chopped walnuts and a glaze made with apricot preserves and unflavored gelatin.

Today, the Palmer House serves Bertha's Brownie, which follows the original recipe.
inside chicago lockwood palmer house hotel

Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider

The brownie made using the original 1893 recipe is available to guests dining at the downtown hotel's Lockwood Restaurant and for those stopping by the hotel café, where it is sold as a grab-and-go dessert.

I tried the brownie while dining at the hotel. It was much fancier than other brownies I've had.
palmer house chicago brownie

Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider

The brownie, which cost $13, was served with a rich chocolate topping, strawberries, and a side of brownie crumbs.

When I took my first bite, I was surprised; it tasted very different from other brownies I've had in the past.

It was chocolatey, rich, and nutty, with a tart-like and fudgy texture that felt almost gritty at times.

Rather than being cake-like, I thought the original recipe leaned a lot more on the dark chocolate. Looking at the recipe's ingredient list, I was surprised by how little flour it actually contained.

Compared to even modern brownie recipes, where cocoa powder is often used to replace melted chocolate, this recipe places greater emphasis on liquid ingredients like dark, cocoa-heavy couverture chocolate, eggs, and butter, and uses a lot of granulated sugar.

The apricot glaze on top also added an unexpected fruity taste to the decadent dessert, making it more dimensional and luxurious than other versions I've tried.

Compared to boxed brownie mixes, Bertha's Brownie felt like an entirely different dessert.

The hotel also offers other brownie-inspired menu items, from pancakes to a cocktail.
palmer house brownie old fashioned

Courtesy of Hiltons of Chicago

In addition to serving the original brownie, the Palmer House has other menu items inspired by the 1893 creation.

The hotel's Lockwood Restaurant serves Bertha's Brownie Pancakes topped with brownie crumbs at breakfast and a rye Brownie Old Fashioned garnished with a mini brownie on its drinks menu.

In all, the dessert felt like a tangible — and tasty — piece of history.
palmer house brownie chicago
The original recipe for the chocolate brownie felt like a dessert category of its own.

Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider

If you asked me to name a fancy dessert, I would probably think of elaborate concoctions like baked Alaska or meticulous recipes like French macarons before a brownie, but the Palmer House brownie might just change that.

More than a sophisticated take on a classic, the recipe is a classic of its own and stands apart from other brownies I've tried.

Eating the brownie felt like biting into a piece of history, and I'll probably be thinking about it until the next time I'm in Chicago.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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