Chefs Bio
I asked Chef Christopher Kelly, ”What was the first dish you came up with?” Reluctantly, looking up towards the sky and with a shrug in his shoulders, he said, “An egg, peanut butter, ham, cheese, and mayonnaise sandwich.” I guess he read the look of disgust in my face and immediately said, “I was only four years old. Sounded like a good at the time and I’m very glad I left out the gummy bears.”
As the son of the vice president of sales for Sysco Foods in central Florida as well as being raised by an Italian family of uncompromising food quality where everything was made from scratch, Chris spent his early years cooking, creating, and meeting the best restaurateurs and chefs in the area. “My father would bring me into work and introduce me to the chefs. They would give me their chef hats. I think I had two dozen of them by the time I was 10.” Most people’s homes would smell like bacon in the morning. I fondly remember the smell of marinara cooking at six in the morning for dinner later that evening.”
Chris moved to Pensacola in 1992 at the age of 17 to attend the University of West Florida where he studied business. He became a manager of a small restaurant by the year’s end. By 1993, Chris began bussing tables at Chan’s Gulfside Café on Pensacola beach. He later became the head server and closing manager for their fine dining restaurant The Florida Room by the end of the year. He then was recruited by their head Chef Geno Fowler and Phil Handley to become kitchen manager and chef.
Chris was recruited in 1998 by Chef Jim Shirley of The Fish House to become their operations manager, bar manager, general manager, and chef. Increasing business from the front of the house with a Chef driven perspective, sales increased exponentially as did service and standards.
Well on his way to becoming a successful restaurateur, manager, and chef, Chris handled the everyday restaurant challenges of leaking dishwashers, broken wine glasses, overtime tickets, kitchen fires, bar costs and broken hostess stands. Then Hurricane Ivan came.
The category 3 hurricane devastated Pensacola and the surrounding community. Chris’ construction know-how forced him into a position where he served general contractor and designer of a ruined Fish House and its neighboring restaurants and homes. He oversaw every aspect of the reconstruction including the millwork, welding, design and a re-imagined menu. Since then, Chris has had his hand in various restaurant ventures including The Atlas Oyster House, The Deck Bar, Great Southern Café and The School of Fish restaurants.
Chris set off on a new ventures in 2008 when he formed Cedar Steele Productions, Well Done Restaurant Concepts Inc., and Chris Kelly Restaurant Solutions, a consulting company, opening and helping operate 6 restaurants his first year alone.
Chris is currently the owner and executive chef MP Grill at the Marcus Pointe Golf Course, a restaurant he redesigned from the ground up. While he knows his way around every corner of a kitchen, he still laments one thing lacking in his professional career.
“With 19 years as a restaurant manager and chef, I still can’t golf.”
