Food manager has a world of experience -- by Barbara Elve

Lee Elkas has delicious memories of the kitchens of his youth -- first in Montréal, then in Toronto -- and the tasty meals cooked up by his Turkish grandmother and French Canadian mother. UW's new director of food services recalls his grandmother "let me get my hands dirty and mix things up" in her kitchen, launching what was to become his food services career. He brings to Waterloo a rich range of experience, from scullery to management posts, from neighbourhood pubs to top hotels and restaurants around the world.

Lee Elkas poses in the food services offices (in one of the townhouses between Village I and Ron Eydt Village) where wall decorations remind him of the department's heritage. That's Bob Mudie, food services director for three decades, in the picture at upper left. --Photo by Barbara Elve.

His first job was in a kitchen -- as a dishwasher at Smitty's Pancake House in Mississauga. And when it came time for university, Elkas was drawn to the University of Guelph's hotel and food administration program.

After stints at the Royal York, where he developed an eye for fresh produce, at U of G food services as a student manager, and as bar manager at the Inn at Manitou, Elkas decided to sample cuisines of the world. He visited Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, where he worked as a restaurant manager for a Sydney catering company. After touring Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Greece, he traveled to Turkey for the first time, making "a pilgrimage to my grandmother's birthplace." In England, he worked in a Covent Garden pub, "pulling beer" before being promoted to bar manager.

Back in Canada, Elkas took a position at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler as manger of the hotel lobby bar and one of the hotel's restaurants, a Spanish tapas bar -- and stayed long enough to "work with some of the best chefs" and to meet Staci, a health club attendant and his future wife. After four years at Whistler, the couple moved to Kitchener, and Elkas spent three years as food and beverage director at Langdon Hall in Cambridge. From there they went to Kleinburg, where he was food and beverage manager at the McMichael Gallery until he was "recruited" to the Delta St. John's Hotel and Conference Centre in Newfoundland as director of operations. When the hotel was sold and a new management team arrived, Elkas took a position at the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis in Alberta, then at the Delta Chelsea in Toronto before accepting the position at Waterloo.

'Great team' already in food services

"I've worked with increasingly large budgets," says Elkas, culminating with a $15 million budget at the 1,600-room Chelsea -- "the largest hotel in the Commonwealth" -- where he managed 10 departments. (UW's food services does an annual business of about $12 million.)

So why Waterloo? "I knew of the reputation of the University of Waterloo -- its great reputation academically and as a great organization." Besides, his wife and two sons, Jack, six, and Symon, two, were anxious to put down roots: "It was sort of a homecoming," says Elkas, now 41, looking back to his days in Guelph and in Kitchener.

Arriving on campus in June will allow him to meet people and adapt to the new work culture before the hectic fall term. One difference, he says, is that the hotel business needs more aggressive marketing, while the campus community is more of a captive audience.

"Here the focus is on education," he adds, noting he feels a greater sense of responsibility to provide nutritional value, as well as to educate students about healthy eating. "Nutrition is important, as well as variety, options. Healthy body, healthy mind: it's about balance."

He plans to offer educational opportunities to his staff, as well, to keep the job fresh with stimulation from new ideas. Options include trade shows, conferences, industry publications, as well as culinary competitions. "I've personally always looked for ways of self-improvement, and it's important to have a team with something to strive for." His management style is "participatory" with an emphasis on group goals and support for staff "so they have the tools they need to do the job. "The hotel business tends to be micromanaged from the top," but Elkas says he "believes in people's ability to be successful on their own, to learn from their mistakes."

Among his challenges: he will have to adapt to using communication tools to stay connected in an environment more decentralized than that of a hotel. "I'm lucky because there's a great team here already," including food services assistant director Jeff Chalmers, an old classmate from Guelph, as was former food services director Mark Murdoch. "I'm anxious to get to know people and build some relationships."

Accident rate 'above average'

Staff and faculty members were hurting themselves at the rate of more than one a day in February of last year, and almost that often during several other months, the annual injury and fire report from UW's safety office says.

There were 288 "work-related reported injuries/incidents" during 2004, including 30 in February and another 30 in October, the report says. Previous years showed a lower rate of injuries: 246 in 2003, 256 in 2002 and 192 in 2001.

4 actual fires in 2004 UW fire alarms went off 129 times during 2004 -- down from 145 in 2003 -- but most of the time accident was the cause. There were 32 intentional false alarms during the year, and 4 cases of actual fire or smoke (down from 7 in 2003). Village I accounted for 28 alarms, more than any other building, the report says. Math and Computer had 16, of which 8 were deliberate false alarms, likely during exams. The safety office breaks down the cause of the alarms, including 18 caused by water problems, faulty equipment or lightning; 46 produced by steam, tobacco smoke, paint fumes, cooking or similar stimuli; 10 set off during construction work. Of the 4 actual fires, three are described as intentional and one accidental.

However, "lost-time injuries" -- accidents serious enough that the injured person couldn't come to work the following day -- didn't increase much from 2003 (31 of them) to 2004 (32 such incidents, slightly higher than typical in the "educational facilities group" reported by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board). And the number of days staff and faculty were off work actually dropped from 2003 (498 days) to 2004 (361.5 days), though the "lost days severity rate" continues to be "significantly above the rate group".

"Falls (78) were the predominant type of injury," says the report. "Walking (68) and Housekeeping/Custodial Services were the activities at the time of most injuries."

A chart shows that 111 of the injuries were classified as "sprains and strains" -- consistent with somebody who might have been, say, walking, in, say, February, and suffered a fall. On the other hand, there were 9 "contact with chemicals and radiation" incidents, 11 eye injuries, 4 "insect or animal" encounters and 1 needle stick during the year. There were no motor vehicle injuries to faculty and staff on campus.

Food services and plant operations led the injury list as they usually do, but departments from chemical engineering to geography also reported injuries.

The report restricts itself pretty much to employee injuries, which have to be reported to the WSIB, but does note that there were 75 reported student and visitor injuries on campus during the year, down from 96 in 2003.

In brief…

From an statement released July 8 by the University of Waterloo Muslim Students' Association: the MSA “denounces in the strongest possible terms [the] indiscriminate terror attacks in London. The horrific attacks that shook the city [on July 7] are completely incompatible with the world's great religious traditions, including Islam, and can never be excused or justified. Our sympathies and our prayers are with the victims, their families, and friends.”

Tara Quach, a UW third-year mathematics and business student, died Wednesday, July 6, in a Hamilton hospital, as a result of injuries received in a motorcycle accident on April 23. The accident took place on Westmount Road in Waterloo. The driver of the motorcycle, also a UW student, was seriously injured. A funeral service was held in Chatham on Monday.

The student and staff organizers of UW’s Canada Day celebration are thanking the public and volunteers for their participation in the 21st annual Canada Day event at Columbia Lake. Their statement adds: “We also want to thank everyone for their patience in waiting a few extra minutes for the fireworks to start. Our display was delayed briefly for safety reasons because of high winds that threatened to blow material from the fireworks back toward the crowd. In the end, the wind died down, and we were able to proceed with our signature display.” If you lost anything at the celebrations, contact Dana Evans, CPA’s manager, public affairs, at kd2evans@uwaterloo.ca or 888-4567 x3276.

As of July 5, reports Olaf Naese of CECS, just over 67 per cent of the 3,612 co-op students scheduled to be on work terms this fall either had jobs or were not participating in the employment process. This is up a bit from just over 64 per cent at the same time last year. Students in teaching programs had the highest employment rate (92.3 per cent), with other programs ranging between 62.8 per cent in Science to 79.3 per cent in Accounting.

This news from George Daszkowski, BASc ’73 (Mech Eng): The race car driven by Justin Wilson, a No. 9 Ford Cosworth Lola, when he won the Molson Indy in Toronto last week was prepared under the supervision of race engineer Todd Malloy, BASc ’96 (Mech Eng), a former member of UW’s Formula SAE group.

As follow-up to the article in yesterday’s Bulletin, “Students call for energy saving,” Eric Praetzel of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers a link to UW’s Weather Station, with seven years’ worth of data on rainfall, temperatures, humidity and other measurables. It also includes a link to electrical demand and prices. “Electricity demand, during hot periods, is tied into A/C demand and so you can see a correlation between increasing temperatures and electricity demand,” Praetzel says.

C&PA