Chef, author, and television personality, Anthony Bourdain, researched and penned this historical account of Mary Mallon, the infamous "Typhoid Mary." Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of the Typhoid virus. She was an excellent and talented cook who ultimately spread the disease to several well-to-do households where she worked causing the deaths of many people. One of the families affected hired an investigator named George Soper to track down the cause of the disease. When health officials requested blood and stool samples Mallon was uncooperative and ultimately was taken into custody by the New York Health Department who imprisoned her in a cottage at a hospital on North Brother Island. After five years she was released after promising not to work in the food industry but failed to keep that promise. She was once again taken into custody and lived the rest of her life on the island. Bourdain's research uncovered discrepancies in the versions recorded by various officials involved and the fact that Mallon was basically imprisoned without any sort of due process. There is also some question whether the legal counsel later working on Mallon's behalf was paid for by William Randolph Hearst. In the epilogue Bourdain describes visiting Mallon's grave and leaving a symbolic item "from one chef to another." This account is brief and simple, without an inflammatory or sensational slant.
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