Three couples are dining together at a round table and they've all just ordered their desserts. Two waiters arrive at the table, both of them holding three plates. One is bringing the desserts for the three people on the left side of the table, the other is bringing the desserts for the three people on the right side of the table.

Based on the following (and previous) information, can you answer the two questions below?

  1. None of the couples are sitting next to each other.
  2. Ted is sitting in seat 6, in between two ladies.
  3. Hugh's wife ordered the Danish pastry.
  4. Faye is sitting exactly opposite to the person who ordered the jellyroll.
  5. The upside-down cake was ordered by the person in seat 1, and is brought by the same waiter that brings the dishes for the people in seats 2 and 3.
  6. The chocolate mousse was ordered by a person whose name comes later alphabetically than the name of the person who ordered the rice pudding. Both these dishes are brought by the same waiter, however.
  7. Benjamin and Vanessa, who are sitting next to each other, are served by different waiters.
  8. Yvonne is not seated exactly opposite to her husband.
  9. One of the six guests ordered nut brittle.

Question 1: If the seats are numbered clockwise, who's sitting where, what are the three couples and what did everybody order? (Please supply the steps taken to arrive at the answer)
Question 2: What's the color of the table: red, green, blue, yellow, white, black or brown?

N.B.: The answer to the first question can be found using logic alone; for the second question a little lateral thinking is needed.

Hints for question 2:

Look at initials only. Seats 1-3 are on the right side, seats 4-6 are on the left side. Their dishes are all coming up right behind them...

  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Can you point out the genders as well? For example Faye is M or F? $\endgroup$ – Techidiot Mar 3 '17 at 14:41
  • $\begingroup$ @Techidiot Males are; Ted, Hugh, Benjamin. Females are; Faye, Vanessa, Yvonne. $\endgroup$ – n_plum Mar 3 '17 at 14:48
  • $\begingroup$ In #2, do you mean 'next to' two ladies or 'in between' two ladies? Also what is 'left' and 'right' for a circular table? Do you mean seats 1-3 by one waiter and the rest by another? $\endgroup$ – Bravo Mar 6 '17 at 17:46
  • $\begingroup$ are all couples heterosexual? $\endgroup$ – Clint Eastwood Mar 6 '17 at 19:28
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @ClintEastwood: All couples are indeed heterosexual. $\endgroup$ – Levieux Mar 7 '17 at 8:18

Question 1:

Seat 1: Yvonne — Upside Down Cake; her husband is Benjamin.
Seat 2: Hugh — Jelly Roll; his wife is Faye.
Seat 3: Benjamin — Nut Brittle; his wife is Yvonne.
Seat 4: Vanessa — Chocolate Mousse; her partner is Ted.
Seat 5: Faye — Danish Pastry; her husband is Hugh.
Seat 6: Ted — Rice Pudding; his partner is Vanessa.

Question 2:
I originally assumed the names, or perhaps initials, of the diners in their seating order would spell out something that would point us at a table color.

The first hint suggested more or less exactly this, but having looked at that possibility before making my first guess on table color, I arrived exactly nowhere with it, which the hint didn't change.
The later hint added a mention of the desserts coming up behind their respective diners, which suggests a spacial arrangement that looks like this:

     R T Y U
    D F * H J
     C V B N
with the * indicating the location of the table and the letters surrounding it corresponding to the diners' initials and the first letter of their chosen desserts "behind" them.
Notably, as @M Oehm found, this arrangement matches the layout of keys on part of a QWERTY keyboard, with the G key standing where the * is. Thus the table is G.
That tells us, both because in RGB notation the G indicates green, and because of the colors listed in the question only Green contains the letter G:
The table is green. (Good find, @M Oehm!)


  • Ted in seat 6 (#2)
  • Hugh in seat 2 (#2 says seats 5 and 1 are females, and #5 + #7 requires seats 3&4 to be Benjamin and Vanessa; seat 2 must be male, and cannot be Benjamin)
  • Ted and Vanessa are a couple (#1 says his partner is not in seats 1 or 5, so only Vanessa - known to be in seat 3 or 4, is left)
  • Hugh's wife is Faye in seat 5 (#3 and #5 requires his wife to be in seat 5, and #8 precludes it being Yvonne)
  • Hugh has the jelly roll (#4)
  • Yvonne is the wife of Benjamin, who is in seat 3 (Benjamin by elimination, and he can't be in seat 4 by #8)
  • Vanessa is in seat 4 (elimination)
  • Faye had the Danish (#3)
  • Rice pudding and chocolate mousse had to go to seats 4 and 6 as they are served by the same waiter; that gives Vanessa the mousse and Ted the rice pudding. (#6)
  • Nut Brittle to Benjamin (#9 and elimination)

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  • $\begingroup$ Ah nice work.. I had initially thought couples are not sitting next to each other meant the couples as a pair were not directly next to other couples... But my guess for color of table is brown as every single dessert has some brown color or is dominantly brown colored. :) $\endgroup$ – n_plum Mar 3 '17 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ Logic is correct, the answer to question 2 isn't, though. I'll post a hint. $\endgroup$ – Levieux Mar 6 '17 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ These hints just lead me back to things I've already looked at. I don't know what I'm supposed to see in these letters. $\endgroup$ – Rubio Mar 7 '17 at 16:03
  • $\begingroup$ You're very close now, especially the "possibly this"-version. Just drop the second letters for the desserts (so take only the very first). $\endgroup$ – Levieux Mar 9 '17 at 12:03

Rubio has found and explained the answer to Question 1.

Question 2: The table is ...

... green.

The seating arrangement is:

    RT YU
   DF ● HJ
    CV BN
The black dot is the table. The inner letters represent the six diners and the outer letters the desserts that come up right behind them.

Spread this sketch out and you'll see:

    R T Y U
   D F ● H J
    C V B N
This is the middle part of a Qwerty keyboard and there's a G where the table is. G represents green in the RGB system and it's also the only colour with a G in the choices given in the question.

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice. That completely eluded me. $\endgroup$ – Rubio Mar 26 '17 at 15:28
  • $\begingroup$ Me, too. But I had the arrangement written on an envelope that I use to scribble on and that is half-hidden under my keyboard. This afternoon when I booted my computer, I saw it. Yay for long boot times. $\endgroup$ – M Oehm Mar 26 '17 at 15:35
  • $\begingroup$ Mind if I add this to my answer? $\endgroup$ – Rubio Mar 26 '17 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ No, I don't mind. Go ahead! $\endgroup$ – M Oehm Mar 26 '17 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ This was nice find! +1 $\endgroup$ – Techidiot Mar 26 '17 at 15:50

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