Saul and I handled the breakfast problem, and for lunch we had cold cuts, including the sturgeon, which had been passed as edible, two bottles of champagne, and five kinds of cheese. The Doorbell Rang (A Nero Wolfe Mystery Book 41)
If you’re going to play hermit for a day and escape into the world of detective Nero Wolfe, bring an appetite. Because the great genius who solves murky murders, largely from the leather chair in his office inside his generously-sized brownstone home in New York City of the 1940s/1950s, is the old-fashioned definition of a gourmand. As in someone who ‘enjoys eating and drinking, with a particular appreciation for good food and fine dining’.
I rarely leave my house. I do like it here. I would be an idiot to leave this chair, made to fit me —. Nero Wolfe in
“Before I Die” (1947), chapter 2
Nero Wolfe rarely leaves his brownstone, and when he does it’s generally under duress. Author Rex Stout described him as weighing a seventh of a ton, with a high forehead, full but not pudgy cheeks, full lips that might purse in and out when he’s considering a problem, a complexion that can become florid after one of his legendary meals. Since his house, which he shares with his energetic factotum Archie Goodwin and his Swiss chef, Fritz, is largely his entire world, he’s surrounded himself with luxury, and he commands high fees in order to fund his lifestyle.
Archie Goodwin, a sharp-eyed detective who’s Wolfe’s right hand man, does all the leg work, and Fritz supplies Wolfe with the gourmet wellness to fuel his brain. Wolfe is highly opinionated about his food and often argues with his chef about the preparation.
As part of Wolfe’s happy nesting, he has a strict daily schedule:
- Breakfast is in his room, in bed, wearing his signature yellow pajamas
- From 9am to 11am he tends to his prized orchids in the greenhouse on the top floor of the brownstone
- Lunch takes place at 1pm
- From 4pm to 6pm he returns to his orchids
- Dinner is at 7pm sharp
- Client meetings largely take place in the mornings between orchid time and lunch, or in the evenings after dinner
Meal times and orchid times are sacrosanct, and heaven help anyone who tries to mess with those.
Rex Stout served in the U.S Navy, followed by a variety of jobs. He began writing short stories in his mid-twenties, selling mainly to pulp magazines. He published his first novel in 1929, and in the 1930s he tried his hand at detective fiction, about a rotund, methodical, and brilliant detective and his assistant. The Nero Wolfe novels were a success, and characterized the rest of Stout’s life. He published at least one story a year, to make 47 novels in total. We have all of them, downloaded as ebooks to save shelf space in our already overflowing library.
For my hubby and me, what defines the Nero Wolfe stories the most is the period ambience. It’s what makes the books, and the brilliant 2001-2002 television series on A&E, featuring Maury Chaykin as the crusty Wolfe, and Timothy Hutton as the charming Goodwin, so effective an indulgence and escape. Watching the series is like having a plate of gourmet chocolates with a glass of port – rich, full of flavour, and soul-gratifying. It’s rare that a filmed version surpasses the original books, but this series achieved it: a complete immersion into the days of gritty detective stories flush with the style of the feisty decades between the Roaring Twenties and WW2.
The mysteries are fun, but for me they take a back seat to the lives of Wolfe, Goodwin, Fritz, Wolfe’s orchidist Theodore Horstmann (who doesn’t make an appearance in the television series), the irascible Inspector Cramer (chomping on his cigar) and his sarcastic sidekick Sergeant Purley Stebbins, Wolfe’s efficient additional operatives (Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather), and various other entertaining characters.
Wolfe’s brownstone, somewhere on the south side of West 35th Street, is a central character of the novels – so much so that fans have posted online diagrams of its layout. The television series did a superb job of recreating it, with hundreds of tiny details in the background.
Each novel is replete with references to food, and while some of the meals may seem a little dodgy by our standards (like squirrel, and shad roe, which I’ve looked up and would, frankly, make me lose my cookies), they will probably make you want to set a table with china and flowers and create something delicious to eat. Here’s a simple description of one of Wolfe’s breakfasts by Archie, the ever-present and cheeky narrator:
I descended a flight to Wolfe’s room, tapped on the door, and entered. He was in bed, propped up against three pillows, just ready to attack the provender on the breakfast table which straddled his mountainous ridge under the black silk coverlet. There was orange juice eggs au beurre noir, two slices of broiled Georgia ham, hashed brown potatoes, hot blueberry muffins, and a pot of steaming cocoa. Over My Dead Body
Wolfe even fusses over producing acceptable scrambled eggs in The Mother Hunt. I’ve made his version, and it is superb – incredibly light and fluffy clouds of eggs. You can find the recipe online on the Scribd site.
The novels themselves can be a bit challenging to read from the perspective of a different century. Stout’s language reflects the attitudes of the time period, as politically-incorrect and insensitive as it appears to us now, but I think if you can set that aside you’ll really enjoy the time travel. Stout also wrote Wolfe as quite disparaging of women, although he hinted at some reasons for that in Wolfe’s much more active past as a young man in Montenegro. But I do recommend watching the television series if you’re willing to rent or buy it on Amazon. We have the complete set on DVD, and we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve binge-watched. Our only regret is that the series began to lose ground in 2002 to other programming and more episodes weren’t made.
You might also be able to find The Nero Wolfe Cookbook, a compilation of recipes from the books published by Rex Stout himself in 1973, in your local library. Copies of it are available on Amazon. Create a simple, delicious repast of cheeses and cold cuts with a glass of champagne or a cup of tea, or something fuller from the cookbook, put on episodes from the filmed series, and settle in for a cozy evening of beautiful dames, slick detectives, stylish cars and jazzy glamour.