- Case
- Too Many Cooks
- Year Published
- 1938
- Case Introduction
- 5-9 April, 1937. Wolfe and Archie travel to Kanawha Spa in West Virginia by train for the five-year gathering of Les Quinze Maitres -- the Fifteen Masters. Wolfe is Louis Servan's guest, invited to address the gathering on the subject of American contributions to la haute cuisine.
- Notes
- Resolution
-
After Phillip Laszio is found stabbed to death and Jerome Berin is held in jail for suspicion of the murder, Wolfe undertakes to prove Berin innocent. He does so by producing witnesses who explain how Berin could have been the only master to screw up the sauce tasting contest. Wolfe's investigation, however, makes the murderer nervous. He is shot and superficially wounded presumably by the same person who killed Laszio. Wolfe says he will not be a "complacent target" and takes the case to find the murderer and see him brought to justice. Wolfe pieces together (with the help of Inspector Cramer and Saul Panzer) the relationship between Raymond Liggett and Dina Laszio and reveals their plot after his speech at the final evening of the Fifteen Masters.
Characters in the case:
Character descriptionManager of Kanawha Spa.
"Bourgeois," Wolfe calls him.
Reserved notes for this case
Hypnotizes Archie on the train ride with her beauty and aroma.
Character descriptionDaughter of great chef Jerome Berin.
Reserved notes for this case
Many years before Marko Vukcic introduces Wolfe to Berin on the train, Wolfe had happened upon Berin's great creation, a sausage called Saucisse Minuit, at a little Spanish inn -- while Wolfe was a young man on a confidential mission for the Austrian government, and Berin was unknown in the world of haute cuisine. Learning the secret of Saucisse Minuit became a lifelong quest for Wolfe; but Berin will share his secret with no one, not at any price. Others have tried to replicate the delicacy; an outraged Berin tells Wolfe of Phillip Laszio's audacity in offering something he calls Saucisse Minuit on the Hotel Churchill menu.
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of the Corridona at San Remo.
Reserved notes for this caseWrongly jailed for the murder of Phillip Laszio, he owes his release to Nero Wolfe. At least Berin doesn't take the recipe for Saucisse Minuit to the grave with him three years later, when he is killed by a Fascist bomb in Barcelona, while fighting for the Loyalists in Spain.
Unfriendly towards Phillip Laszio because Laszio was rumored to have undermined his position at the Hotel Churchill, stealing his job there as head chef.
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of the Willow Club, Boston.
Reserved notes for this caseSuspect in the murder of Phillip Laszio.
A brown-skinned cook in immaculate white cap and apron, he is presented to the Fifteen Masters at dinner, by host Louis Servan; responsible for the baked oysters. "Pierre Mondor stated with quiet authority, 'Superb.'"
Character descriptionFish chef at Kanawha Spa.
Reserved notes for this case
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of The Rattan in San Francisco.
Reserved notes for this case
Accompanies her husband Lawrence Coyne to Kanawha Spa. Justifiably concerned that her Chinese heritage will color the response of the bigoted West Virginia police.
Character descriptionYoung wife of great chef Lawrence Coyne.
Reserved notes for this caseWolfe catches her lying about her movements the evening of the murder of Phillip Laszio. She claimed to have caught her finger on some door, but her story was inconsistent with that of the doormen.
She confesses that she saw the man (a black servant) leave the room where Laszio was murdered moments before the discovery of the body.
Character descriptionServant at Kanawha Spa, who holds somewhat of a leadership role amongst the other black servants.
Archie describes him as, "...the plump runt with a ravine in his chin."
Reserved notes for this case
Escorts Wolfe on the train trip to Kanawha Spas.
Archie is interested in Miss Berin.
Character descriptionNero Wolfe's tough and witty assistant.
Reserved notes for this case
Not in attendance at the Kanawha Spa gathering.
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of Café de l'Europe in Istanbul.
Reserved notes for this case
A self-described "special kind of woman." Archie notes, "I have always had a belief that the swamp-woman -- the kind who could move her eyelids slowly three times and you're stuck in a marsh and might as well give up -- is never any better than a come-on for suckers, but I could see that if Dina Laszio once got you alone and she had her mind on her work and it was raining outdoors, it would take more than a sense of humor to laugh it off." Tells Wolfe privately that she fears her husband, Phillip Laszio, will be poisoned. "I am seizing an opportunity to articulate a grudge," Wolfe tells Dina when he has the opportunity to dress her down for her effect on Marko Vukcic's life; "I have admitted an animus against you... You enveloped him with your miasma -- you made that the only air he wanted to breathe -- and then by caprice, without warning, you deprived him of it and left him gasping."
Character descriptionDaughter of Domenico Rossi.
Ex-wife of Marko Vukcic.
Wife of Phillip Laszio.
Reserved notes for this caseHas hypnotized Raymond Liggett and conspired with him to murder her husband Phillip.
Character descriptionMarried to Dina Laszio, stole everything from everyone. Stabbed to death during the tasting of Sauce Printemps.
Reserved notes for this case
Visits Wolfe at Kanawha Spa with a letter of introduction from Burke Williamson (who had allowed Wolfe to stage the robbery of Anna Fiore on the grounds of his estate in "Fer-de-lance").
Character descriptionManager and part owner of the Hotel Churchill in New York.
Reserved notes for this caseRaymond is under the spell of Dina Laszio whom he knows from New York. Together they plot the murder of Dina's husband Phillip Laszio.
Liggett stabs Phillip in the back during the sauce tasting contest. He disguises himself as a black livery servant of Kanawha Spa.
Later Liggett shoots Wolfe through the window in his suite.
Berin tells story to Wolfe of how Laszio stole his great pupil Malfli and then how Malfli delivered an invitation to lunch with Laszio.
Character descriptionFormerly Alberto.
Originally a protégé of chef Jerome Berin, but stolen by Laszio.
Reserved notes for this caseAccompanies Raymond Liggett to see Wolfe at Kanawha Spa, both hoping to hire Wolfe to find the killer of Laszio.
Interviewed by Wolfe at Kanawha Spa.
Character descriptionBlack head-waiter at Kanawha Spa.
Reserved notes for this caseReveals that he saw a man leaving the dining room (after Laszio was later known to have been murdered) and that he noticed that the sauce dishes were all out of order. He put the dishes back into the correct order before leaving the room -- accounting for Berin's being the only person to "misidentify" the missing ingredients in the Sauce Printemps.
Character descriptionHouse detective at Kanawha Spas in West Virginia.
Reserved notes for this case
Takes Archie and Wolfe to the railway station for the exotic excursion to West Virginia. (...Tough little Saul Panzer [was] choking off a tremelo as he told Wolfe good-by. You might have thought we were bound for the stratosphere to shine up the moon and pick wild stars.") Called long-distance into the case by Wolfe, Saul documents the movements of the killer and arrives at Kanawha Spa during Wolfe's dinner speech. "Have you got anything?" Archie asks before they enter the dining room. "I've got everything," Saul replies.
Character descriptionTop hired hand Nero and Archie look to for manpower. Hosts regular Thursday night poker game at eight pm at his apartment in Brooklyn. Rust-colored hair, 5'7, 145 lbs, big nose and flat ears.
In the "Rubber Band" (ch. 6) Archie tells us that Panzer has a photographic memory when it comes to faces.
Reserved notes for this caseVerifies Wolfe's belief that no newspaper had reported the name of the sauce being tested -- and that Dina Laszio must have provided the information to the killer, who then had made a slip by naming it in his conversation with Wolfe. "How do you do, Mr. Liggett," Saul says as he quietly faces the killer at dinner and lays out every detail of his movements before and after the murder. "You say you drove here this evening in the same car that Liggett hired Tuesday?" Wolfe asks Saul. "Well, that's rubbing it in."
Local sheriff near Kanawha Spa.
Character descriptionSheriff of Marlin County, West Virginia.
Reserved notes for this caseWolfe blasts Pettigrew for his racist tendencies and desire to persecute Whipple and Moulton (key witnesses from whom the sheriff failed to get information).
Woman of questionable repute who accompanies Ramsey Keith to Kanawha Spa as his cousin.
Character descriptionYoung European woman.
Reserved notes for this case
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters. Chef of Empire Café, London.
Father-in-law of Philip Laszio; Dina Laszio is his daughter.
Reserved notes for this case
Host of the five-year gathering of les Quinze Maitres at Kanawha Spa.
Invites Wolfe to be the guest speaker at the gathering.
Character descriptionDean of les quinze maitres. Chef of Kanawha Spa, West Virginia.
Reserved notes for this case
Not in attendance at the Kanawha Spa gathering.
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo.
Reserved notes for this case
Character descriptionOne of the Fifteen Masters; chef of Chateau Montcalm, Quebec.
Reserved notes for this case
Archie describes him as "not fat, but huge, like a lion upright on its hind legs with no hat covering his dense tangle of hair."
Introduces Wolfe to the great chef Jerome Berin. To Wolfe's disgust, Marko is again enthralled by his former wife, Dina, who had left him after five years of marriage for Phillip Laszio. "Archie. I have affection for Marko Vukcic," Wolfe says. "I hunted dragonflies with him in the mountains. Do you realize that fool is going to let that fool make a fool of him again?"
Character description"He was one of only two men whom Wolfe will call by their first names, apart from employees," Archie relates as he introduces Marko in "Too Many Cooks." A boyhood friend from Montenegro, Marko is welcome to address Wolfe by his first name, and he dines monthly at Wolfe's house. One of the Fifteen Masters, Marko is the great chef of Rusterman's restaurant in New York -- one of the few places Wolfe will dine away from home.
Reserved notes for this caseA suspect in the murder of Phillip Laszio -- just as Dina intended.
Is interviewed by Wolfe with numerous other servants at Kanawha Spa.
Character descriptionWaiter at Kanawha Spa.
Reserved notes for this caseReveals to Wolfe that the Laszio's murderer was white not black as Lio Coyne had stated.
Takes train trip to Kanawha Spa -- he is very upset at being on such a large moving object as a train.
Wolfe is the guest speaker at the five year gathering of the quinze maitres.
Character descriptionMaster detective. Genius. Estimated weight: 1/7 ton. Carries a large platinum watch in his vest pocket. Sends a check every month to his mother in Budapest ("Fer-de-lance, ch. 13)..
Reserved notes for this caseWolfe is kept awake by Tolman the evening of Laszio's murder.
Wolfe turns down Malfi's and Liggett's offer of hire to find Laszio's murderer.
Decides to prove that Berin is not the murderer as a favor to Berin in exchange for his recipe for sausage minuets.
Works important information out of Lio Coyne -- she saw two black men in the dining room where Laszio was murdered.
Interviews all the kitchen servants who had access to the dining room the evening of Laszio's murder.
Meals in the case:
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Orchids in the case:
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Quotations in the case:
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