For the third consecutive year, generous patrons of the arts have opened their home to complete strangers, guests of South Shore Arts, who had purchased an evening of gourmet cuisine in an undisclosed location. The Mystery Dinner, as we call it, had been auctioned at last June's Beaux Arts Ball, the annual black-tie gala that raises $175,000 for the "everykid" arts education programs of South Shore Arts. The lucky winners were ophthalmologists Ann and Doug Williams of the Williams Eye Institute and Hearing Center in Hammond.
The dinner, prepared by executive chefs Gary Sanders and Nicole Bissonnette, was held on Saturday, October 22nd, at the rural LaPorte home of Anneke and Jan Dekker, who were probably not altogether sure of what they were in for. The venue is always what the mystery is about: in this case, the Dekkers' rebuilt and landscaped home with multiple outdoor, tiered stone terraces and a long, wide living space with windows that open onto a water view, extending a dining room, reception and living area, with back-lit artwork alcoves. There's even a cozy Casbah corner lit by candlelight and strewn with pillows like something out of the Arabian Nights.
Speaking of pillows, I once saw one in a shop window in East Hampton, New York, needle-pointed with the saying, "Guests of guests may not bring guests." This rule does not apply to the Mystery Dinner, where a whole raft of people get involved: in addition to the hosts, there are the guest hosts who get to bring six guests, the cooks and the (so-called) celebrity servers, who are, in reality, just guests themselves.
The way it works is that the people who won the auction and their guests are treated really well. They get to sit at the grown-up table and are appropriately served each course on fine china. They drink the best wine out of real wineglasses. The Williamses invited friends Liz and Chris Valavanis, who bought the dinner last year, Denise and Kent Kirk from River Forest and Sylvia and Bob Cantwell from Chicago.
After each course has been served, the servers serve themselves family-style in the comfort of a separate part of the house and out of sight of the honored guests. It's practically a class system! While the official guests get to drink the good wine, the serving staff gets to drink, too (and boy do we need it). But we drink what I like to call "serviceable" wine provided by South Shore Arts, the kind of stuff typically served at our exhibit openings, i.e. not expensive, but it's free and therefore good enough. We're a nonprofit, after all.
Pat Colander, a co-conspirator and organizer of the event (and originator of the idea), reported in these pages that this year's Mystery Dinner set another higher bar. The fact is, it takes a village to put on one of these things, and for the master puppeteers whose lot it is to pull the strings where there are no strings, it's a freaking fret-fest! Maybe that's what we should call it: Fret Fest I, II or III. But would anybody bid?
I felt very honored to be in the Dekkers' home. Jan Dekker is one of the world's leading authorities on specialty vacuum applications, one of which was originally used in the gold mines of South Africa. The Dekkers came to the United States in 1979 for Jan to open up a vacuum division for Sullair. He and his son Rick founded Dekker Vacuum Technologies (nothing to do with vacuum cleaners) headquartered in Michigan City in 1998.
Like her husband, Anneke Dekker-Olthof is Dutch by origin, African, as she says, by osmosis and American by assimilation. Working under the name of ANKO, Anneke's full-time passion is for art. She is a visual artist who draws from her experiences as a Chicago fashion designer and her lifelong interest in travel and photography. ANKO was also the name of Anneke's fashion business and store in Franklin Square in Michigan City from 1980 to 1995 and her outlet stores called ANKO ALSO. Anneke has always been an avid gardener and now divides her time between the Chicago area and Southwest Florida, so that she can garden year-round and stay in touch with the earth's vegetation in all its fascinating aspects as a continuous inspiration for her paintings.
The Dekkers' home in Indiana reflects these interests. The house sits within 32 acres of cultivated and wild gardens. Perennials abound—ajuga, hellebores, hostas—and myriad specialty gardens: a moss garden, a succulents garden, a ball garden (or "The Ball Park") where everything alive or inanimate is in the shape of a ball (boxwood, granite, pottery and cement), an azalea garden and a forest garden. Anneke says, "We wanted as little grass as possible."
A wisteria-covered arbor goes all the way up the back of the house, and every summer when the flowers are in bloom, the Dekkers host a wisteria party where everybody comes dressed in purple. Anneke and her sister, who lives in Australia, laid all of the home's extensive stone terraces and retaining walls—even a working waterfall across from the pond—over a three-month period, three consecutive summers.
In order to enjoy the external surroundings while there was still light, the event kicked off a little earlier this year. Pat, her husband Jeffery Kumorek and I arrived at five, but the chefs were already there, cooking away. The Dekkers had been putting everything in order—the table, the kitchen, the house and the 32 acres—for who knows how many days. By 5:45, we were all in high suspense: when would the guests arrive? Would their chauffeured transportation to and from the mystery location, compliments of Gary and Shar Miller of Southlake Limo, be able to find us? At 6:00, there was a great sigh of relief; they were here—thank the Lord for GPS!
Guests talked amongst themselves on the deck and hosts met hosts. This part is always a little tricky: do the actual hosts get to mingle with the guests? Do they get to eat at the adult table? (No!) Are they to be treated as guests in their own home? Well, yes, sort of. In any event, this being a civilized crowd, everybody did what came naturally—they mingled. Alcohol helped, and the chefs had concocted a special cocktail for the evening that proved enormously popular: the Fallen Angel martini, consisting of Three Olives Apple Vodka, County Line Orchard apple cider and a splash of brandy.
Passed hors d'oeuvres kicked off the feeding frenzy out on the deck:
Beef au poivre on Parmesan shortbread
Olive tapenade
Raisin pecan crostini with Maytag blue cheese and port wine mousse, County Line Orchard apples and prosciutto
Quail Scotch Eggs with grained mustard aioli
Louis Roederer Cristal 2002.
The idea is that the people who bought the Mystery Dinner at the auction pay to come because a) it's for a good cause, b) there will be really good food and c) it'll be fun. For the past two years, the party has been enhanced to a high degree by the excellence of the wine provided by the people who won the dinner, in each case oenophiles with their own impressive cellars. This year's menu consisted of the following scrumptious courses, six in all including dessert, which were complemented by exquisite wines provided by Ann and Doug Williams.
First Course:
Butternut squash ravioli
Apple cider brown butter sauce, arugula, spiced nuts and crispy sage
Domaine Dublere Chablis Les Preuses 2007
Second:
Truffled porcini mushroom bisque (insanely delicious, I might add)
Marcassin Blue Slide Ridge Pinot Noir 2003
Third:
Beluga lentil and quinoa duck confit salad
Roasted beets, Mission figs and pomegranate-sherry vinaigrette
Fourth:
Seared day boat scallops over whipped maple-chipotle sweet potatoes
Pear-cranberry relish
Mulled port wine reduction
Colgin IX Estate Syrah 2003
Main course:
Smoked Beef Tenderloin with raisin port demi-glaze
Parsnip Potatoes
Shafer Hillside Select 2004
Dessert:
Rustic apple galette
Valpo Velvet pumpkin ice cream
Almond tuiles
As a server, one is uniquely positioned to eavesdrop on the guests; it's like Big Brother without the gratuitous nudity or overall repulsion. Discourse at the table included subjects ranging from the Michael Jackson trial ("Guilty!") to the capture of Muammar Gaddafi ("Finally!") to Chaz Bono's performance last week on Dancing with the Stars ("Poor Cher!"). Guests were animated (some with great authority) until, finally, a hush fell over the table with the arrival of the meat course.
At the evening's end, the guests all climbed back into their pumpkin, while Nicole and Gary went home to look after Lucien 'Luc' Sanders, younger brother of the famous Ian Marcel Sanders and not yet three months old. We servers did the last few dishes, so as not to leave our hosts with a mess. Jeff admitted that he'd had a great time in spite of his unfounded fear of being a server, and I, stuffed to the gills as I am each and every year, just lay back like a baby and waited to be powdered, grateful for the kindness of strangers and friends alike. Thanks to everybody's generosity, this year's Mystery Dinner was yet another unmitigated success!
