History of Topo Pino

In the early 1900s, Janet McKenzie Hill purchased a property in the White Mountains and named it Topo Pino. A food writer, culinary educator, and editor of The Boston Cooking School Magazine, Hill had trained under Fannie Merritt Farmer at the Boston Cooking School — and left to build something of her own.

At Topo Pino, she established a Summer School of Cookery, teaching women to cook with seasonal ingredients, precision, and care. The school drew students to the mountains of New Hampshire at a time when culinary education for women was still finding its footing. Hill understood that cooking was a serious discipline — and that the setting in which you learned it mattered.

It was Hill who gave the property its name. Topo Pino — the place where her vision of food, education, and the natural world came together.

The property has been in our family since 1967. The name, and what it stands for, we're still carrying forward.

Janet McKenzie Hill's Summer School of Cookery

  • Students of Janet McKenzie Hill's Summer School of Cookery gathered on the porch at Topo Pino, where culinary tradition and shared learning flourished.

  • Janet McKenzie Hill at her home, Topo Pino.

  • Beautiful place setting on the porch at Topo Pino in the early 1900s.

Historical Photos & Stories