By Josh Staloch
Staff Writer
GREEN BAY – At the age of six, Chris Mangless’ parents used to host brunch each Sunday on the west side of Green Bay.
Future chef, young Christopher, said he was always a big part of the production.
Now 37 years old and in charge of his own culinary enterprise as the owner of Three Three Five, a fine-dining restaurant featuring locally-sourced dishes in the Broadway District, Mangless said his current successes came from a lifetime of experience as a chef, going all the way back to those Sunday brunches.
The Mangless family were no strangers to the kitchen.
Chris’ grandfather, Elmer Mangless, whom he never met, opened the first bakery in Green Bay, called Widow Jones.
Chris said being around the bakery as a child helped instill in him a love of cooking.
“Growing up, I always thought that I knew my grandfather, but I didn’t,” he said. “In fact, I just had all these memories through my dad, making his recipes at home and talking about him, seeing pictures. But he was a part of me. I feel that I have all of these flavors and inspiration from him.”
Mangless said he never consciously decided to become a chef – it was just sort of a part of him.
He said he was always interested in art, design and travel, but when it came time to get serious about his education, Mangless chose culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, and the rest, as they say, is history.
He said he believes it’s important for a chef to travel, to get out of their comfort zone and to experience new things.
“If you’ve never been outside of your own backyard, that’s something, not to discount those things, but there’s a lot of other things out there,” Mangless said. “And to be inspired by those other things, to learn those flavors and taste other things, now you can broaden your mind and palate and have the ability to create more.”
Making an event happen… wherever
The traveling chef aspect of what Mangless does changes every time, but he said it’s definitely not as straight-forward as throwing a box of pots and pans and a bag full of ingredients into a pickup truck and heading across town to cook a meal and then calling it a shift.
“It depends on if we’re cooking for two people in Green Bay or Milwaukee, a party of six in De Pere, or a party of 200 in Malibu or maybe a party of 40 in upstate New York,” Mangless said, before adding that he has navigated each of those scenarios in his experience as a traveling chef.
“Is it a cocktail party that requires 20 staff or is it a 12-course dinner in somebody’s home that requires a staff of six? Or is it a party of 2,000 that requires a staff of 50 and it’s in another state or even another country? You could need four sprinter vans, a box truck and a handful of plane tickets to make that happen.”
Whatever the client requests in order to make the experience perfect, Mangless said he will go the extra mile to accommodate, and sees a lot of positives resulting from being able to create in the moment.
From lighting, to music, to the crispness of the linens on the table, Mangless said the goal for him and his team when working a traveling chef job is to make sure every guest at the event has a spectacular time.
“At Three Three Five, the idea is the same, that’s how it started,” he said. “We were doing in-home dinner parties when I was in high school and kept hearing the same thing. ‘Could you do this for 20 people? Could you do this for our board of directors?’ So we wanted to create a space that has the warmth, the comfort of having a dinner party at your own home. In 2008, that didn’t exist.”
A part of downtown moving forward
For anyone wondering why the young chef chose Green Bay to put down his roots as a business owner and active community member, he said the simple answer is, he’s from here.
Mangless said his hometown has a lot to offer.
“Turns out, there are a lot of cool people, in business, not in business, doing cool things,” he said. “And if you don’t support it, those cool things go away, so I think it’s important to be involved.”
Mangless said without community, “What do you have? Not much.”
“The farmers market they’re talking about, those kinds of things are a great idea,” he said. “I think On Broadway, Inc. has done a good job of bringing good people and businesses into the neighborhood.”
As far as the future of Three Three Five and Mangless’ adventure as a traveling chef, he said the sky’s the limit and he doesn’t see himself slowing down anytime soon.
“I hope to continue to expand, continue to meet cool people,” he said. “I still think of myself as a young businessperson, for my mindset every day. But I also feel like this year is as new as my first year, essentially. Don’t settle in the way you do things; don’t do things a certain way just because that’s the way you’ve always done them. Do what you feel inspired to do. Support people that are doing the same and create community amongst people who are doing the same.”