Joseph Lee lived most of his life in Boston, MA.  He was very prominent in the food services industry, having begun working as a boy at a bakery.  He soon began preparing, cooking and serving food, eventually opening two successful restaurants in the Boston area in the late 1890s.

Lee owned and managed the Woodland Park Hotel in Newton, MA, for 17 years.  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.

The catering business was a great success and during this time he became interest in eliminating a situation that had become annoying to him.  Joseph 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, Joseph had long believed that crumbs from bread was quite useful in preparing food, as opposed to cracker crumbs which many others favored.  He decided that instead of simply throwing stale bread crumbs away, he would use it to make bread crumbs. He thus set out to invent a device that could automate tearing, crumbing and grinding the bread into crumbs.  He was finally successful and patented the invention on June 4, 1895.  He used the bread crumbs for various dishes including croquettes, batter for cakes, fried chops, fried fish and more.