The Game Is Afoot

Wellington On A Plate is in full swing, and as well as burgers there are other events. Some of these are free, walk-in and pay type affairs, but others need to be booked, and often sell out in a matter of minutes. The Game Is Afoot is one of the latter. It is described on the WOAP website thus:

Prepare to indulge in a culinary conundrum that leaves you pondering, ‘whodunnit?’. In this murder-mystery dinner like no other, held in the 19th-century home of the British High Commissioner, you'll discover the answers lie within the Residence’s chef Bet Cabrera’s carefully curated menu. Inspired by British novels by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’, put your thinking cap on and solve the riddle while indulging in five courses complemented by wines from Johner Estate.

It's basically a murder mystery dinner, held at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Karori. The Commissioner is away, but during his absence, his cousin - Dobby Black - has been murdered…most foully! There are five suspects: the chef, the maid, the housekeeper, the gardener, and the barman. No butler, otherwise it’d be a shoo-in.

We arrived at 6:30 for cocktails in the vestibule: two cocktails where offered, the rosemary cyanide (basically a Bellini with rosemary) and a Holmes (whisky and orange syrup concoction), along with hors d’ouevres. We met some of the other guests, including one from Nicola’s orchestra; and also representatives from the Johner Estate vineyard in Gladstone, who were supplying the wines for the evening.

At seven o’clock our host, Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Dines, introduced himself and explained what the dinner was about. We were directed to our seats (three tables of 10), each table named after a famous detective: Poirot, Sherlock, and our table, Wainthropp. In front of us was the menu: 

And the food looked like this:

 

The soup was cold

Pickled mussels

The candelabra

Fish course - blue cod

Cutlery engraved GR and ER

duck breast main course

A chocolate orange

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr De Mille

It was yummy.

As we made our way through the various courses, on occasion a wine glass was tapped to attract our attention and silence us, so that a clue could be read out by one of the assembled guests. There were five clues, each relating to a different suspect, giving information about their relationship with Black, and what their motivation for killing him might be. I was chosen to read out the third clue, relating why Tim the gardener was a suspect in the murder. I delivered it in my best Toastmasters voice, making eye contact around the room and imbuing the text with some drama!

After dinner, we were invited to inspect the study where the body had been found, to see if there were any additional clues. The chair was overturned, and there was a spilled wine glass on the desk…and, tellingly, there was also a spray gun for weedkiller left behind on the floor! This was all we needed to implicate the killer.

As we assembled in the drawing room for coffee and tea, each table was asked to give their thoughts on who was the culprit. We immediately pointed the finger at the gardener, and at this point our host, Lt. Col Dines, read to us from the recently-discovered diary of the gardener, which gave all the evidence that was needed to arrest Tim for the murder. 

The stunning denouement

That was about the end of it. We made our thank yous and goodbyes, and headed home.