I gather that the favoured escape move for a 109 with an early Spitfire on its tail was to bunt over into a steep dive. The Spitfire pilot could only follow by rolling inverted and pulling, but in so doing would usually lose visual contact with the bad guy.
The tea lady rumour is probably attributable to a combination of basic sexism and aircrew ribaldry, as one can imagine pilots poking fun at the male boffins for failing to come up with a solution to the problem.
"I say, chaps" said P/O Prune, breezing into the mess with Kentish mud on his boots, "pranged another this morning, rum show, but guess what some popsy at the War House has come up with for chasing bunting jerries...top wheeze, eh? Oh, don't mind if I do, thanks awfully, skipper" .