Shower the People

The Friday formal went off without too much ado. It's good to have that pressure off of us. I spent Saturday working on my book and attending the last of our Wine & Spirits classes. This week was the digestifs Cognac, Armagnac, Calvados, Scotch (highland and an Islay), ruby port, tawny port and a cream sherry. It's amazing I made it back downstairs to keep working on my book. I can tell you, though, while the Calvados was a very yummy first, the Lophraig Scotch was brilliant and the Armagnac fantastic. It took great self-control to only sip at the glasses.
As you might have seen in my previous posts, the process here includes a rather in-depth autobiographical look at who you are, where you came from and what your influences are. My attitude is I have to be very honest with myself and my employer if I am to justify entering their home on a daily basis. Some of the exercises were exhausting at both the spiritual and emotional level. The result of all this work was, for me, a 20 page examination of my past, experience, values and style and standards of work.
The Placement Team then creates a Curriculum Vitae for us based on this work plus several interviews with us, our existing resumes and job experience.
I got to see the draft of my CV last Monday. I was surprised to see excerpts from the transcripts taken during the school's check of my references. These are added to the end of the CV.
Here is the hard part. I was stunned. I still find myself crying at the memory of the responses. I cannot explain the wash of emotion I felt at seeing the wonderful words used by these people. I can only say that I am humbled and blessed to be surrounded by such generosity and love. Thank you all.

Peace Train

It's been a long 3 weeks. The amount of information coming our way can be a bit overwhelming. That combined with the dynamic of 8-10 people spending 12-14 hours a day just about every day makes for a good amount of tension. What is interesting is the group was warned about "Week 5". Right around week 5 the students begin to feel overwhelmed with the information and frustrated with life "in the fishbowl". It can make for some less than pretty moments.

Between our HM Book project and making up for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays, there has not been much down time. I worked most of last weekend (18-20 hours) on my Book. We have the last of our wine tasting seminars tomorrow afternoon and then back to the Book. It looks to be another work weekend. However, we are down to the last two weeks. That's almost hard to believe.

I am just about finished with my HM Book. This is where we create a Principal and spouse/partner, their family, children pets, their house, their wardrobe, linens, china, etc. We create their service style and standards. We staff the house, create task sheets for cleaning areas of the house. Create a formal dinner event to honor an international guest. It is a long project with tons of research and data entry. The International Guest insert is due on Monday. The Carmichael's (my principals) will be hosting Richard Carmichael of Carmichael, Baron of Carmichael and Lady Carmichael for a formal dinner. The Book is due July 2, but I plan on being finished but for one or two details this weekend.

We served the first of two formal dinners last night. The class was divided into 2 teams for the events the kitchen staff ("Back of the House") and the serving staff ("Front of the House"). The Back of the House is responsible for preparing the food served. Since these are 8 course meals, there is a lot of preparation involved. Four classmates plus 2 chefs worked in the hot kitchen all day. However, the food was magnificent. The Front of the House polished silver, set the table and made sure the entertaining spaces were presentable for guests. The work is certainly less physically strenuous; however, the table and house are presented to exacting standards. The Principal's guests and the Principal left very satisfied. Tonight we get to do it all over again for 10 new guests plus our hosts.

We have a late start this morning, 10 a.m. instead of 7:30. Time to hit the showers, though, show time is only 8 hours away.

This just in...

A number of articles have run in the past few days with regard to "butlering". Let us be clear that what I am training for is a Household Manager. The distinction is important. A House Manager provides a service. Butlering is a style of service. The perception is that "Jeeves", or worse "Alfred", is the only way to manage a house. (Both, by the way, were Gentleman's Gentlemen or Valets, not really Butlers.)

In any case, the Wall Street Journal has an interesting article. You might actually recognize someone in the pictures. The Independent features another article sighting the apparent shortage of Butlers.

It was another long week, but I am finally finished with the kitchen rotation. Now it is time to kick the studying into high gear. I am doing fine on the tests and quizzes , so far. Now I have to focus on my HM Book. I am VERY far behind the rest of the class on this part. My goal is to have it finished before we have our Formal Dinners.

The Formal Dinners are our opportunity to practice entertainment service with real guests in the Mansion. Local or regional VIPs are invited by the Principal. The pictures in the WSJ show us practicing serving at the table. We will also have to work on everything from floral arrangements, seating charts, 4 different styles of serving (French, Russian, English & American Plated), formal table setting (though we had a lot of practice the week before last with all the media here), door greeting and announcement protocols, cocktail service, after-dinner coffee service, etc. And, that is just the "front of the house" stuff. The list for the "back of the house" is equally as long.

The Principal and a close associate have separate evenings to invite their guests to these events. For our class, the events will be in 3 weeks. We have a lot to get done in 3 weeks.

You had a bad day

It was a looong day. The pressure of getting things done is starting to build. Little surprises keep cropping up; keeping me on my toes. On top of that, Mr. Challenge, who has been pushing all the students buttons, finally broke through my defenses and we had a small yelling match in the kitchen.

Values, Standards & Morals

Here is what I spent the weekend working on. This is the first draft of what will become my Personal Statement.

In today’s advertising environment, phrases like “providing service over and above expectations”, “generosity” and “consideration” have become watered down. While I believe in these concepts, I believe further that only through example can these values be measured.

At Quigley Preparatory Seminary, I was taught that Christians in every walk of life are called to demonstrate love, generosity and consideration. Everything we do is to be done for the glory of God, including our work. I believe that honest work should be performed honestly. This means that all honest work can be a Christian vocation or calling. We do our jobs as Christians when we do our jobs as effectively and honestly as possible.

At seminary, I also understood that my vocation was not to the priesthood. I felt called to a different fatherhood. This decision was tested when we moved away from Chicago after my freshman year. I was given the opportunity to choose to live in the dormitory full-time or move to Milwaukee with my family. I did not return to Quigley.

I place great value in my family. I am thankful for the conscious effort my parents took to raise their children differently than they were raised. I take pride in providing a nurturing environment to my wife and children. In this environment, they are given the tools to materialize their visions; praise for their successes and sincere support for their failures. I cherish my time with Amy and the boys. After my faith, these are God’s greatest gifts to me.

That Was The Week That Was

I knew it would happen. Things would get hectic and the newest habits would be the first to be sacrificed. I will not make promises to do better. However, I might try to make smaller posts more frequently.

Last week was equal parts recovery from week 1, super busy in different ways and then a long weekend. A crew from NBC was on site with us most of Monday. CNBC and the Today show are doing articles about our school. First, we were filmed presenting our "Mirror" exercise. This is a self-evaluation done at the beginning and end of the course. We are challenged to measure our abilities against what we feel is the ideal. Afterwards, we had a crash course on setting a formal dining table for 12. After Sment Christmases and 8 years in dining rooms, this was not too much of a stretch for me.

On Tuesday, we began our Culinary courses. During the 3 hours, we were introduced to kitchen safety, hygiene and cleanliness. My zones so far have all been in the kitchen. It will be almost 3 straight weeks of dishes, sous chef and chef work. I will be very glad when this Friday rolls around and I will be finished with the kitchen zones. I cannot remember ever looking forward to dusting and vacuuming in this way. It is not that I mind working in the kitchen. Point of fact, I love it. However, it adds about 6 hours onto my day. By comparison, the non-kitchen zones are 2-3 hours extra per day. After 8 hours in class, the 2 hours of dinner prep, preparation and clean-up pretty much take the wind from my sails. I am not complaining, but I am looking forward to being in a different part of the mansion next week.

On Wednesday, we began our Wine & Spirits courses. During the 5 hours, we were introduced to the course layout (once per week for 3 hours). The instructor walked us through aperitifs: cocktails, sherries and other before dinner drinks. We also spent time in the kitchen mixing cocktails or trying aperitifs. We sampled a Manhattan, Lillet, a traditional Martini, Pernod, Margarita and a few others. No one really liked the Pernod, it is fortunate it is one of my favorite summer drinks. It went very well with dinner.

On Thursday, the camera man from NBC was back for some additional footage for the NBC spot. Otherwise, we were busy with in-class instruction and time to prepare our HM Books due at the end of June.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal was in the mansion. WSJ is also doing an article on Starkey. Apparently Starkey is mentioned rather favorably and at some length (the entire second chapter) in an upcoming book about service. We spent the better part of the day with a photographer for the WSJ. The article is being written by the same man that wrote the book.

Friday night, Mr. B, another student and I went out. There's a punk bar around the corner. Johnny Cash was playing when we walked in. We took our beer to a booth, plugged the predominately country music jukebox with $5 and kicked back.

The weekend was quiet. Mr. B was out all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday. I went for a long walk on Saturday morning (6 miles) and then worked on my HM Book for the rest of the day. On Sunday, I walked the 2.5 miles to Christ Lutheran Center, a WELS mission in Denver. The 45 minute service was not quite enough rest for the 2.5 mile walk back though the 2 tacos asada y coca did provide the energy for the stroll home. Man, I love authentic Mexican food!

On Monday, we hung low. Mr. B and I changed our bedding, cleaned up the room and mostly just hung out. We have a big assignment due in the morning, so we focused on that when we weren't resting.

That's all from Denver. Have a great week.

Good help is hard to find

To answer the question, "There's a market for that, Scott?" Here is an interesting article that ran in today's Chicago Tribune.