Daily Inspiration: Meet Wayne Elias

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wayne Elias.

Hi Wayne, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was working at UCLA Faculty Club as the Executive Chef. I had a friend Chris Diamond who wanted to buy a Restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. called Mark’s. I decided to take that risk and leave my secure job at UCLA and own my 1st restaurant. There in 1995 we started to do catering for small dinner parties. We both had a background in catering working as cater waiters. I also had the experience from UCLA doing parties for up to 500 guests. We had 12 private dining rooms and also a big Ballroom. That is where Crumble Catering was born. Then from my UCLA days a woman who knew me was on the LA County Board and they were looking for a new Vendor to run the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. We did a tasting and landed the contract. Ran it for 14 years. Than from Marks’s the new VP for NBC Studios was a regular customer. He was complaining how the food at the Commissary was so bad. Chris said to him Wayne has the experience from UCLA running a large venue with multiple Cuisines. We were introduced to the CEO of NBC in Burbank and did a tasting and landed that contract for the next 15 years. After that a friend who is an event producer Virginia Fout was asked to help the Elton John Aids Foundation produce the Oscar Viewing Gala events. The caterer at the time was retiring. We did a tasting and gave a very competitive bid to help the Organization raise much needed funds. They took a risk on us and we have been doing this event for the past 22 years. We cater for lots of private parties for Birthdays to Weddings. Also we cater for the Dodgers, CAA, Disney, PAF, Apple, Lionsgate, Prada, Tory Burch, Steve Tyler Janies Fund Grammy Viewing Party for the past 5 years.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
LA is a very competitive Catering World. We have had a smooth ride and have shown we can create and deliver beautiful presented and tasting cuisine. No struggles to speak of. We keep it going and keep creating and stay up with the current food trends. We are very passionate about what we do. Work with the tightest budgets that we are sometimes given.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are known for the Handsome and Beautiful Men and Woman that we hire to represent us. Its LA lots of Beautiful Men and Woman come to LA to break into the acting and modeling world. They all need to work and make money to survive. Chris and I are know to help and hire green servers and train them and help them survive and stay on their game and then they move on to the next level of personal success.
Our Food and Creativity has given us great compliments and we are known for our specialties that we have created over the years.
Myself Chef Wayne and Executive Chef Martin collaborate and create menus and recipes every week.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Cookniche, IG, Tik Tok, Bon Appetit, Great British Chefs, Great Italian Chefs, FB

Pricing:

• We ask for our customers to give us a budget .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://crumblecatering.com
• Instagram: @crumblecatering
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crumblecateringandevents/