By Clarissa Tan

"FROM the collar upward he stands alone," is Bertie Wooster's immortal description of his genius manservant Jeeves, who not only brushed his clothes, chose his ties and concocted morning beverages that cured the worst hangovers, but also got him out of many a scrape.

The best butlers today are still this way. Tony Sharp (top photo), whose name has quite a Wodehousian ring of its own, has had the pleasure of serving, across the years, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, the Crown Prince of Japan, George Bush Sr, Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama. Mr Sharp, an Australian, attended to many of these people when they were on visits to hotels and restaurants in Sydney, Canberra or Melbourne.

"Whoopi wanted lemonade," recalls Mr Sharp. "You know, not just any kind of lemonade, American lemonade, the kind you always see them selling on stands. I got her some American lemonade. She said to the general manager: "I want this man to be my butler while I am here."

Mr Sharp, who was also personal butler to media baron Kerry Packer for five years, is now chief butler at the spanking new St Regis resort in Nusa Dua, Bali. His job is to oversee the crew of 30 butlers serving at the glittering 8.8-hectare property, ensuring that service is impeccable, seamless, quick and discreet throughout the day.

"The whole thing must work together like a ballet," he says. "We have a butler's manual that is at least two inches thick, that I compiled and the butlers use as a reference."

The St Regis prides itself on its butler service, which it says distinguishes itself from that of most other hotels. Its butlers are trained not only to wait on you hand and foot, but also to converse with you on important world events or advise you on the best cultural attractions around town.

The butlers, all of whom are Indonesian, had to undergo three months of intensive training, says Mr Sharp, who recalls that the hotel received 2,000 job applications for the 30 posts on offer. The training included lessons on the proper way to cook and scramble eggs, knowledge of wines and body language.

"We also did diction, pronunciation and role play," he says. "One day I would speak with my own Aussie accent, another day with an English accent, and another day with Scottish, American and so on, to help them get used to it."

Mr Sharp says that in Bali, hospitality and courtesy come from the heart, a quality he tries to retain in the St Regis butler service. "There's a rhythm in Bali that revolves around religion and the seasons, between the rice fields, fishing and praying," he says. "We have to respect that rhythm."

He says he had some adjusting himself to do, to the way of life in Bali. "At every major event in Bali, they hire rain-stoppers. When I first came here, I said 'What's this rain-stopper thing?' It turned out a rain-stopper is someone you hire to keep the sun shining at an event.

"And you know what? They're pretty effective."

btnews@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Business Times.