Creative Corner
Featuring Butlers who Apply their Creative Talents to their Art and their Profession
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Rick Fink
“This portrait is of an Indian friend, Priti, whom I see whenever I visit Mumbai—I know all her family.”
Priti was married at the beginning of this year and Mr. Fink captures her happiness.
Mr. Rick Fink has been in the butler profession for over six decades, is the principal of the Butler Valet School in England, and a venerable member of the International Butler Trainer Alliance. He started painting four years ago and before that, when he was in his 20‘s—during the time in between those years, he was too busy butling to paint!
“A family staying with us for a while included two adorable little girls. Their mother worked with them on arts and crafts and wanted them to see my sculptures, so I showed them. The next day I gave them each a fridge magnet—a lion’s head—that I had made before and which they were very happy to receive.
“Here is what I received from them in return today—the lion is made up of individual stickers…
And the little dinosaur is made of air-dry clay that they had made themselves.”
As Mr. Gutman says, with a big smile on his face, “Adorable!” From a guest-satisfaction perspective, nothing tops engaged children who are inspired to creativity by a butler’s simple, caring touches—and, need it be said, by a mother’s loving and nurturing?
Mr. Kobi Gutman is one of the most accomplished hotel butlers in the world, currently working as the head butler at a private resort in Florida; he can be reached via the Institute.
The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.