Almost four years have passed since I completed the intensive Butler/Valet course held by Mr. Rick Fink. Since then, I have been working in a prestigious private house in London as a butler and personal valet to my Principal and his family. I consider myself very fortunate and blessed for having chosen the Butler Valet School, and in particular for having met Mr. Rick Fink, director and trainer, and an inspirational gentleman, with whom I am truly honored to have been able to keep in touch. He has been kind enough to make himself available and willing to help me on a number of occasions, it may have been just a word, advice, or even a gladly shared meal, with the cordial delicacy one would expect more from a father and a friend than from a school Director.
I share these small details because I find them only apparently irrelevant: on the contrary, they say a lot about the human stature of Mr. Fink, about his authentic passion that really constitutes the soul of his school, the motive and the engine that drives him, beyond any lawful calculation or advantage: that is, the clear and honest will to "pass on" his life-long professional experience to the “young” generations. To transmit the know-how and its very own fiery zeal, the authentic loving passion for butlering, with its technical skills and the human values that animated it at the core.
Before starting this new chapter of my life, after two doctorates in classical, humanistic and religious subjects, I've been trained at a School for Hotel Management in Switzerland, receiving the Adv. Diploma in Culinary. Since then, for several years I've been gaining valuable working experiences in restaurants and hotels kitchens in Italy, Switzerland and England.
What has always fascinated me about hotelier and culinary arts is its potential in creating, through an eclectic art, hard work and honest passionate efforts, a unique aim: a "welcoming, warm experience" for the guest. I therefore discovered and understood over time - almost a providential revelation - that the authentic fulfillment of such a vocation was to become a private butler and valet: the quintessence of “bespoken taking care of” and the epitome of quality personal service. As mentioned above, I really came to believe that Mr. Rick Fink personally embodies the most genuine values expressed by the ideal of this vocation: in Him I met an authentic gentleman, and in his stories I could listen to the very memories and the practical wisdom "down-to-earth” of a “life-long gentlemen's gentleman”, private butler for more than fifty years.
I have an innate "allergy" and reluctance to false rhetoric as an end in itself and for those who show off and pretentiously sell away for high price "more smoke than roast". On the other hand, I think I quite learnt to acknowledge and definitely appreciate, as real gold, the genuine sincerity of those who with sincere passion and knowledge of the facts go straight to the point and are ready to spend themselves, with moral straightness, to get the right thing properly done, with no frills nor pretentions. Here: these are the traits that I recognized and highly appreciated in Mr. Fink as a director and tutor and as a gentleman, certainly together with the intense, complete and practical academic program.
The school program, carried out with an eye always attentive to the most genuine British tradition, and the other eye to the needs of modern expectations and practicality, truly does not neglect any of the eclectic skills necessary to run a stately home.
Even just recalling the wonderful location of Ditchley Park helps to remember and visualize even after years the completeness of the program as a whole: the classes ranged, from a spatial point of view, from the huge dedicated classroom (for both theoretical and practical lessons, for example the dinner table setting module, food carving, cocktails, wine and spirits...) to the well-stocked butler pantry of the school, "Downstairs" (ideal for dealing with subjects related to silver and china care, fabrics and shoes care, different kinds of trays, packing luggage, ironing etc.); and again "Upstairs" at the main pantry on the back of the dining rooms (where the practical lesson and exercise on the care and cleaning of fine china and crystal took place); and then again from the numerous bedrooms with ensuite and wardrobe on the upper floors of the building (room-service, morning call, personal valeting, housekeeping, caring for wardrobe), to the distinguished entrance of the Palace (where demonstration took place on the reception of guests on various occasions - expected and unexpected guests ; formal and informal situations; guests for a reception or staying overnight); again, we have widely ranged in the solemn reception rooms of Ditchley Palace (the small dining room where we learned how to set up the buffet for breakfast - with memorable precious tips on how to approach your Principal in the quick but often decisive morning briefing), the large dining room for the dinner parties, the TV room where we were taught to serve the informal family meal, the lounges where Mr. Fink showed us, actually and practically doing it, how to set up for the afternoon tea; the ballroom for the larger receptions, where the subject of butler ads and toast mastering was also dealt with. Even the meals we ate at Ditchley Park were an experience of pure British classy tradition, also a way of absorbing - we students of international origin - precious aspects of the most genuine quality English culture.
I remember with gladness and gratitude that, as his spontaneous extra-scholastic offer, Mr. Fink took us students to visit the rooms of Windsor Castle over a weekend.
During the last week of the course, I had the very appreciable and precious opportunity to be admitted for an operational afternoon and evening with the real staff of Ditchley Park, supervised by the Head Butler, to experience the preparations and the service of a special event (I think it was a Diplomatic Congress taking place). I was able to assist in preparing and resetting the conference hall, and later waitering in the drawing room for the pre-dining reception, then serving at dinner in the large dining room.
Earlier that day, after we had just reset the conference hall while all the guests where in their rooms, I was personally impressed and honored for the kind attention and interest that the overall director of the House, Mr. Montagu, very generously and unexpectedly cared for showing me as a “trainee butler”, personally coming to meet me in the main pantry where all was just about ready for the imminent final dinner party. He gently showed his interest and asked about myself and the experience I was having at the school.
A few days later, it would be from his hands, together with the director of the School and our tutor Mr. Fink of course, that we would receive the coveted diplomas. Another memorable face of the school was that of Mr. Tom Clifton, in charge of helping us students in making an effective CV, and preparing us for job interviews that were about to come.
Even today, whether it is setting the table for the Family or polishing with attempted regard my Boss's Bafta's or Golden Globes, preparing his luggage or travelling with Him, going for the morning call or taking care of the wardrobe, washing the dishes or receiving His guests, constantly and preciously Mr. Fink's words, examples and teachings come back to my mind fresh and alive. Inspiring me even in bad days and urging me day by day not to be satisfied with remaining the same as a professional and as a man, but to continually aim for improving myself and to make every effort to nurture and cultivate (with daily discreet and generous commitment and dedication never exhibited but authentic and loyal) that same passion for personally taking care with a quality service, the same respect for tradition and culture, and those same values of noble humanity that made Mr. Fink the gentleman's gentleman he is; and to try to pick up the witness of that "sacred fire" that over the long years has made him a precious person of trust for gentlemen of rank and responsibility, yet at the same time preserving Him admirable in being amiably the neighbor and friend even to the last one who I was and I am.
Sandro Knight
Butler in London at a private residence.
