I ’m standing in a function room at the luxurious St James’ Court hotel in central London, unsteadily holding aloft a basket of bread on a silver platter while being watched by 20 students in a semicircle. Seated at a table near to me are two other students wearing the nametags Robin and Brian. They are pretending to be billionaires on a private jet, waiting for me to serve them lunch.
“What bread would you like?” I say, sidling up to them. “Er, it’s ‘Good morning, sir,’” Gary Williams, the head of the British Butler Institute, sharply interjects. “And it is, ‘Would you care for bread, sir? We have white, brown and rye.
’” I crouch down to get closer to my seated diners, and my tray.
