The Happy Chef was the "world's largest talking chef". He is the icon for the Happy Chef restaurant chain which was founded in 1963. There were about a dozen of these 18' tall fiberglass Chefs produced from the 1960s until the early 1980s. If you pushed the button on his pedestal, the Chef told jokes. The Company destroyed the Chefs as their restaurants closed so they were not used "inappropriately". The company expanded to 56 locations in seven states. There are now 27 locations in the Midwest (IA, MN, SD, and WI) but the Mankato Chef is the only one left at their restaurants. Mankato was the first restaurant in the chain and this was their first Happy Chef statue.

There are a few other Happy Chef statues that still exist. The only one that I know of that still holds his spoon is in Princeton, MN. The one in Wyoming, MN now holds a pizza. Another in Ryan, IA has been transformed into an umpire while the one in McPherson, KS is now a chimney sweep. I'm pretty sure this one in Cherokee, IA is now gone. For more, see this website.