Yes, There Really Was a ‘Typhoid Mary,’ an Asymptomatic Carrier Who Infected Her Patrons

Mary Mallon was a great cook. So great that she’d made a comfortable life for herself in the kitchens of the rich after arriving in New York City as a penniless teenager from Ireland.

She was especially known for her peach ice cream.

Later, she became known as “Typhoid Mary,” a moniker recalled over the weekend as young people flooded bars to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and a Nevada school board candidate wondered why she shouldn’t eat at her favorite Red Robin restaurant amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In 1906, it wasn’t a chain restaurant that caught the attention of George Soper but Mary’s peach ice cream recipe. A doctor and “sanitary engineer,” he had been hired by a wealthy family to investigate a typhoid outbreak in the summer home they rented out in Oyster Bay. They were afraid that unless they found the source of outbreak, no one would ever rent it again.