EAST AURORA, N.Y. — While the holiday season can truly be the most wonderful time of the year, it can also be the most stressful. How great would it be to have a little help?
This week on Most Buffalo, we introduced you to Mr. Paul Smith. He's a professionally trained English butler who has spent decades catering to some of the world's wealthiest families.
"As long as it's not something illegal, you would do what your employer asks you to do," Mr. Smith explains.
Paul Smith's early years were anything but gilded. He spent years moving in and out of an orphanage. Finally, Smith found his way to butler school where he learned the ins and outs of proper service: running households, fetching tea, arranging flowers, and catering parties for anywhere from three to 300 guests. Then, life served Mr. Smith a new adventure.
"My agent called me and said 'You want to go to America, right?' I said 'Well, eventually after Australia and you know, Italy, maybe.' He said 'Well, Buffalo will call. Take the call.'"
Mr. Smith took the call and hopped on a flight to Buffalo. That was 28 years ago. He stayed for about a decade to work for a family in East Aurora before moving on to Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. He catered dinner party after dinner party, year after year. Finally, Mr. Smith realized he wanted more.
"I woke up at 55 and I said 'You know, I, I just don't have a life," Mr. Smith explained. "People didn't care about me the way I cared about them. I'd worked for people for eight years and they didn't know when my birthday was."
That's when Mr. Smith called on some old friends in Western New York.
"They picked me up and we hopped on the 400 to get to East Aurora, and it was as though somebody had poured warm water over me," Mr. Smith explains. "It was an odd sensation. It actually stopped me in mid-sentence which if anybody knows me, that's hard to do."
"I thought gosh, I wonder if that's how it feels to go home," he says.
This week, Mr. Smith invited Most Buffalo into his home in East Aurora where he shared some trade secrets for the holidays: how to set a table, how to arrange flowers and table decor, and even shared a few recipes that are both delicious and easy to make.
BONUS: Watch as Mr. Smith teaches Most Buffalo's Kate Welshofer how to make his crowd favorite Roasted Leek & Asparagus Dip.
Do you have any questions for Mr. Smith? Share them with us on social media using the hashtag #MostBuffalo.