History & Bios

Biographical detail and some additional background profile information on co-owner principals Chef Wayne Elias and Chris Diamond

Wayne Elias

Chef Wayne Elias is co-owner of Crumble Inc. (which was founded in the year 2000), and has also been co-owner of Mark’s Restaurant in Los Angeles since 1995.

Together with partner Chris Diamond, Elias has been instrumental in making both of these companies successful and profitable. He is the Executive Chef and supervises menu creation as well as directing all other aspects of food delivery for both businesses.

Elias is also in charge of marketing, and shares duties for personnel, staffing and human resource functions with Diamond. Unlike many other Executive Chefs, Elias takes a very hands-on management approach, and is totally involved in every food related function at both Mark’s Restaurant and Crumble Inc. Catering.

Elias regularly puts in 16 hour days, starting on the NBC studio lot at 6AM, moving on to Mark’s at 10am to do administrative work, order food for the restaurant, and plan caterings by 3PM he is in the catering kitchens putting the final touches on catering jobs to go out that day, and by 6PM he is in the kitchen at Mark’s in his capacity as Executive Chef.

Crumble Inc. has been under contract to operate the NBC commissary for a number of years, handles food operations at the John Anson Ford Theatre for the County of Los Angeles (practically two separate businesses all on their own), and has a number of loyal blue-chip catering clients including ATT, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Neiman Marcus, The Elton John Oscar Party, Prada, and The Tonight Show among many others including a number of private individuals.

Business at Mark’s Restaurant has more than doubled since Elias and Diamond partnered on the venture, and the restaurant has received consistent rave reviews including an “Excellent” rating from the prestigious Zagat Guide which is tribute to Elias’ culinary skills. And, our ongoing “A” rating from the Los Angeles County Health Department is our patrons assurance that they are in good hands.

Prior to his partnership with Diamond, Elias spent eight years as the Executive Chef at the Faculty Club at the University of California Los Angeles where he supervised a staff of 15 and was responsible for coordinating food delivery to two restaurants and ten private dining rooms within the facility where annual sales averaged 2.5 million. Prior to the Faculty Club, Elias spent three years at the prestigious Westwood Plaza Hotel as Executive Chef.

Asked to comment on the state of the business, Chef Wayne Elias said he was extremely proud of the stability of growth of volume at Mark’s Restaurant, The NBC Commissary, and their catering business in general. He is particularly excited that Crumble Catering has become such a favorite of high end retail stores such as Neiman Marcus, Prada, Fendi, and Marc Jacobs, and that catering clients on the entertainment side continue to be rock-solid and satisfied customers.

Chris Diamond

Chris Diamond is co-owner of Crumble, Inc. (which was founded in the year 2000), and has also been co-owner of Mark’s Restaurant in Los Angeles since 1995. His hands-on daily involvement has been highly instrumental in the tremendous growth of both businesses cited above. In the last three years alone, the volume of Crumble’s catering business has more than quadrupled, mainly due to Diamond’s entrepreneurial drive and hard work. A twenty-year veteran of the restaurant industry, Diamond is an expert in all areas of operations, human resources, quality control, presentation style, and financial management. In addition to these core functions, Diamond is also in charge of the acquisition of new business, a function at which he is particularly talented.

Before partnering with Elias in Crumble, Inc. and Mark’s Restaurant, Diamond was Director of New Store Development for the Acapulco restaurant chain where he further honed his skills in the various aspects of restaurant operations.  During his tenure at Acapulco, he handled the opening of three new restaurants - all of which were immediately successful and profitable.

Prior to Acapulco, Diamond spent six years as the General Manager of the very successful landmark restaurant, The Warehouse in Marina Del Rey, California, which under his tenure had annual sales of $4.7 million. While at The Warehouse, Diamond was in charge of all aspects of staff management, purchasing, cost & inventory control, group & banquet sales, menu planning, food production, budgeting and bar & entertainment management.

Diamond is the financial brains of the business, has a hands-on management style and is extraordinarily detail oriented. His extensive restaurant experience, people skills and talent at bringing in new business have all been significant factors in the outstanding growth and profitability of both Crumble, Inc. and Mark’s Restaurant over the several years.

Chris Diamond echoes his partner, Wayne Elias’ pride and pleasure with the growth of business in recent years, and is very confident that their businesses will continue to expand, especially on the entertainment side.

Aside from high glamour events like The Elton John Oscar Party (which Crumble has now done for five years in a row) and many, many movie premieres (including the recent high profile “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix”), Crumble does a lot of “bread and butter” work in the industry like on location catering, and smaller studio and television show special events which Diamond anticipates will be a significant continuing growth sector for Crumble in the coming years. Our private non-corporate business continues to expand significantly as well.

“Wayne and I work very well together, and no matter how big the business gets, we try and stay humble,” says Diamond.  “We are a high end quality food service provider, and we never take our eye off making sure our food is creative and top-notch, and that our clients get the best possible service. We have staff meetings and strategy planning brainstorming sessions before every event to make sure everything is as innovative, high-energy and perfect as it can be. And it is not uncommon for either Wayne or I to taste every piece of food before it leaves the kitchen. When our clients are happy, we are happy.”