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" Like many busy professional women, Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, owns a place in the city and a place in the country. She employs people to take care of her homes, but still her life is more complicated than she would like. &amp;quot;I used to think that what I need is a wife,&amp;quot; she says. Then she had a better idea: What she really wanted was a butler.  But where might one find the 21st-century version of a butler, a creature less forbiddingly formal than the imperious fellows who are a mainstay of PBS and BBC dramas? After all, the staffs on the British hit series Downton Abbey and the recent sequel to Upstairs Downstairs are fun to watch, but would you want them in your home day and night?  Hamilton raised the issue with a man who should know: David Rockefeller&amp;#039;s chief of staff. He led her to Chris Ely.  Ely began his training &amp;quot;in service&amp;quot; at the age of 18, when he went to work at Buckingham Palace. Years later, Ely served as the beloved butler and estate manager for the late Brooke Astor. His duties ranged from the day-to-day running of Mrs. Astor&amp;#039;s 64-acre estate in Briarcliff Manor, New York, to supervising and training her household staff in Manhattan and at her Maine retreat, Cove End.  &amp;quot;Mrs. Astor was always very correct,&amp;quot; says Ely, and she treated her employees with respect. She dressed for dinner and only descended the stairs in casual attire when heading for the swimming pool. &amp;quot;She felt that if someone went to the trouble of serving her a meal, the least she could do was go to the trouble to be properly dressed.&amp;quot;  Ely, who had always wanted to teach once his &amp;quot;joints gave out,&amp;quot; signed on as dean of the newly created Estate Management Studies program, an offshoot of Hamilton&amp;#039;s French Culinary Institute. The EMS is a sort of graduate school for those wishing to improve their skills at satisfying the needs of the extremely wealthy.  Here students will find classes like &amp;quot;Essentials of Household Cleaning and Organizing,&amp;quot; a 25-hour boot camp with hands-on lessons in proper dusting, floor maintenance, bed-making, and kitchen and bathroom cleaning. EMS &amp;#039;s description of another course, &amp;quot;Laundry Essentials,&amp;quot; promises to go &amp;quot;beyond the washer and dryer,&amp;quot; with a discussion of when to dry clean and when to hand-wash. There&amp;#039;s also instruction on estate management and working as a private chef.  Click here to see butlers featured in movies and TV.  Ely, a man who believes deeply in doing things &amp;quot;the proper way,&amp;quot; says he wants to share what he&amp;#039;s learned from &amp;quot;30 years of my mistakes.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#039;s easy to see why Mrs. Astor came to rely on the soft-spoken, discreetly droll Ely, a trim man with a charmingly self-effacing quality endemic to his profession. You do sense, though, that he might be less benevolent if, say, a worker under his supervision used the wrong cleaner on a fine antique.  Ely takes a decidedly old-school approach to household cleaning. &amp;quot;The best way to do a floor is on your hands and knees,&amp;quot; he insists. No fan of chemical-laden cleaning sprays, he says water mixed with a bit of vinegar or baking soda suffices for most jobs. Still, he does have his favorite products. &amp;quot;I have to admit that I love Mr. Clean,&amp;quot; he confesses, and he feels the same way about the brand&amp;#039;s Magic Eraser for cleaning walls.  What else is in his ideal cleaning closet? &amp;quot;A good vacuum makes a huge difference,&amp;quot; Ely says, and he recommends one with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. And the man who can happily spend an hour ironing one shirt cherishes his Rowenta iron. Feather dusters are a no-no (&amp;quot;too hard to clean&amp;quot;), but he&amp;#039;s very fond of microfiber cloths for dusting because they last a long time if properly cared for (&amp;quot;no fabric softener or bleach&amp;quot;).  Improper cleaning can destroy surfaces and eat away at wood, warns Ely, who considers it a scandal that &amp;quot;many people buy expensive things and hand them over to people earning minimum wage to care for them.&amp;quot;  You definitely won&amp;#039;t be paying minimum wage to a properly trained head of household. Annual salaries start at $75,000 and go as high as $200,000 or $300,000, says Hamilton.  What qualities should you look for in domestic help? Ely recommends workers with &amp;quot;a healthy amount&amp;quot; of obsessive-compulsive disorder. &amp;quot;You need to find people who can do things\u2014day in, day out\u2014to the same standard, with the same eye,&amp;quot; he says.  Dorothy Cann Hamilton offers this definition of the perfect modern butler: &amp;quot;The minute you come in to your country house on a Friday, he doesn&amp;#039;t come to you with all the problems because really what he should be coming to you with is a martini.&amp;quot; Click here to see butlers featured in movies and TV.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/a4052/making-a-modern-butler-a-69799/>