Kent Rathbun

Balls, Boobz, and Potatoes: The Cheap Bastard's Iron Fork Recap

Last night at Iron Fork, a bunch of hipster food people got together and ate food at each other while wearing fashion clothes at the Dallas Contemporary. It was fun. See also: - The 11 Best Bites from the Dallas Observer Iron Fork 2013 - The People and The Food of Iron Fork 2013 I heard it was a ... More >>

BREAKING: Restaurant People Love Crossing Their Arms in Photos

Dallas chefs and restaurant owners looooove crossing their arms in photos. We should make it stop. It's the most important change that needs to happen in our restaurant scene. Seriously. Evidence:

Cooking with Dad: Mark Cuban, Chris Ryan, Eric Nystrom and More Share Their Memories

We tracked down a few locals, and asked them about their dad's cooking choices and what they remember the most about breaking bread with the family. Here's who shared their food memories of cooking with Dad with us: Mark Cuban: Savior of the Greenville St. Patrick's Day Parade and owner of the Dal ... More >>

Get Out Your Fancy Pants. It's Time to Judge Some Cocktails at Abacus on Sunday

Now that the greyhoundy tequila tasting is postponed to next Thursday, I'm sure you're all wondering where you can get your premium spirit this weekend. The answer, if you have cash money to spend, is at Abacus.

The Must-Have Thanksgiving Dishes of Dallas' Top Chefs

We all have our favorite dish at Thanksgiving. Maybe it's sweet potato casserole, cheesy mashed potatoes, Jello salad or cornbread dressing. No matter that crazy great-aunt Melba came up with the recipe 47 years ago; if it's not on the table when the bird is served, then just call the whole thing of ... More >>

Bin Laden's Death Leads to a Rush on Reservations at Dallas' Abacus and Other Restaurants

The Osama Bin Burger: coming to a restaurant near you?​What do Dallas restaurant-goers do when news spreads that U.S. military forces have killed Osama bin Laden, the man behind the most heinous attack on American soil? They don't embark on drinking binges. That's too pedestrian. No, they make pla ... More >>

Food Fight, or: Beginning Your Friday With a Chance to Get Iron Fork-ed For Free

​While awaiting several calls back about items forthcoming, allow me to dispense with these four VIP ducets to Wednesday's Iron Fork event at the Fashion Industry Gallery, where chefs John Tesar and Scott Romano will square off whilst attendees dine on samplings from the likes of Il Cane Rosso and ... More >>

With a Tailgate Party Like This, Who Needs a Game?

Lauren Drewes DanielsRathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen served up buffalo sliders, white cheddar cheese, Dr Pepper barbecue sauce and spicy bread & butter pickles.​Well, everyone played nice. There were no incidents of belligerence to report. No picket lines were formed. No stones were thrown. Inste ... More >>

Top Chef: Get Used to Odd Plating

Richard Blais​A few viewers questioned Richard Blais' decision on last week's edition of Top Chef: All Stars to serve a tuna dish in a silver tin, but experts say restaurant goers should get used to more creative plating techniques. "You're trying to create a memorable dish, and part of that ... More >>

Chef Kent Rathbun Shares The Innermost Secrets of His Spicy Lamb Meatballs

​In part one of this week's Three Course Meal, we gave you a look at Kent Rathbun, owner and executive chef of Jasper's. In part two, we asked Rathbun to complete our thoughts for us. In today's final installment he shares a finger-licking good recipe for spicy lamb meatballs. The Ken Rathbun ... More >>

Kent Rathbun: So Many Restaurants, So Little Reality TV That Doesn't "Suck"

Courtesy of Jasper's​Kent Rathbun's résumé is too extensive to quickly gloss over. Like most chefs, Rathbun started his career as an apprentice working at La Bonne Auberge, a five-star French restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. Rathbun then moved on to work in the kitchens of Mr. B's in Ne ... More >>

The Anti-Gift Guide: Tips for What Not to Buy The Aspiring Chef

Damndest thing: Google "Ginsu Knives" and this picture comes up. How odd.​It should be easy to shop for food lovers, since their hobby's been so relentlessly commodified. Any self-respecting big-box store stocks cooking utensils, cooking gizmos, cooking show DVDs, cookbooks and cooking magazin ... More >>

Charitable Eating: Enjoy a Guilt-Free Thanksgiving

​If you're feeling a little guilty that your Thanksgiving is going to feature three turkeys, 27 different sides and the Mississippi River's worth of wine while others go without, relax. Dallas has plenty of charitable eating options coming up this month. The place: Smashburger The cause: Salv ... More >>

Ace Chefs

Hops to the Stove

Kent Rathbun Offers Entrepreneurial Advice

​Kent Rathbun, who cracked the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog this year with a lobster shooter kit, has advice for other restaurateurs looking to turn their signature recipes into retail sensations. "You got to start small, and you got to think in terms of what people can use at home," Rathb ... More >>

No Holds Barred: Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen vs. Lemon Bar

Photo by Steven DoyleA child shall bake them: our winner, the lemon bar at Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen​The lemon bar, that tasty pastry made up of a shortbread crust and lemon-curd filling, is easily found on tables across the Midwest, especially on Sundays at potlucks among Jell-O salads, me ... More >>

Work up an appetite for the Super Bowl with NFL Dinner Series; Attend Backyard Braising Class and $30 Dinners at Landmark

Sarah Johnson​ Chef Kent Rathbun and the Taste of the NFL are partnering up again with a new event called Taste of the NFL Dinner series. This will be a string of culinary events leading up to next year's Super Bowl XLV and the annual Taste of the NFL's Party with a Purpose. The dinner series will ... More >>

Kent Rathbun Chips in With a Recipe for a Cheesy Appetizer

Photos by Sarah Johnson ​Maytag Blue Cheese Chips Demonstrated by Chef Kent Rathbun of Jasper's Does the name Kent Rathbun ring a bell? You may know him from the many Dallas restaurants he owns and operates like Jasper's, Abacus and Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen. Before gracing us with his presen ... More >>

Celebrity Chef Ken Rathbun is Lending his Rock Star Cred to Zea Woodfire Grill--and It's Working

http://www.kentrathbun.com​Kent Rathbun.You know him best as one of the Rock Star Chefs of Dallas, the creator and driving force behind Abacus, Jaspers, and Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen, not to mention his stint on Iron Chef America, where he and brother Kevin bested Bobby Flay in Battle Elk. His ... More >>

Hash Over: Easter is Coming, a Time of Spritutality, Renewal and Brunch

www.sfgate.com​ Another holiday is upon us, City of Aters. It's that time of year when you put on your Sunday best, dye perfectly good eggs, receive a basket full of goodies from an over-sized bunny, and of course, stuff yourself with food until you feel like you're about to explode, among othe ... More >>

Free Ice Cream for Everyone, Cinnabon Adds a Sweet New Addition, Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen Hosts a Wine Dinner, While 8.0's Goes the Beer Route

www.sodahead.com​We were just thinking the other day that there should really be more free stuff available for the public. What if Steve Jobs set up shop on a street corner one day and just started giving away free computers and iPods? Or if Donald Trump decided it was a good day to rent a hot ... More >>

The Year/The Decade: Best Chefs

​Best is a matter of degrees, whether you're talking about the top chefs over the course of months or years.Certainly this city's kitchens are staffed with more than competent sorts: Brian Luscher, Jean-Marie Cadot, Marc Cassel, Joel Harloff, Graham Dodds...we could go on and on. So in defining ou ... More >>

Top 25 Food-Related Quotes Of The Past Decade

​Almost a decade ago, I wrote this: "Every time this country ends up with a Bush in the White House, several things most assuredly occur: The government inflicts some regrettable incident on Japan, the nation tumbles into a recession, a presidential pet writes a book, and everyone worries about th ... More >>

Swig On A Star

Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen Brings Regular Folks' Food to the Park Cities

Killian's California Red...And White

Souverain's Winemaker's Reserve Cabernet, one of the wines to be featured at Jasper's tomorrow night.Beer pairing dinners have been the rage of late, but apparently some people still do things the old-fashioned way. Kent Rathbun's Jasper's (7161 Bishop Rd., Plano) is offering a four-course wine pair ... More >>

Singin' The Blue Plate

They tried to make us work for the details by sending us on repeated trips to KentRathbun.com, which slowly leaked information over the course of a few weeks. Clever. Of course, Robert Wilonsky cracked the case some time ago on Unfair Park, but...But now, Kent Rathbun is spilling lots of informatio ... More >>

Move Over, Ex-President Bush. Kent Rathbun's Moving a "Blue Plate Kitchen" Into Preston Center.

Earlier today, Unfair Park learned that chef Kent Rathbun would be opening a new restaurant in Preston Center, next door to Shannon Wynne's Flying Fish in the space formerly occupied by Carrabba's, among others. I called Rathbun's publicist Ariana Hajibashi-Martin to confirm, and she was very noncom ... More >>

War Without End

The first of this morning's PR shots came from the folks at Abacus--something about AAA's Five Diamond Award and, more importantly, revisiting the moment when chef Kent Rathbun lifted (as in picked it up off the ground with his bare hands) an elk on Iron Chef America. But you can read about that on ... More >>

Rathbun Leveraged

Rathbun's Regroup

Strike Two

What's in a name?

Dallas' Top Chefs Make Their Bravo Bow Tonight, So Eat Up

The Fixe is In

Fear and Stoving

How do chefs deal with kitchen catastrophes?

Not All There

What happens when people skip out on reservations?

Burning Question

Kitchen Detention

Can you really learn to cook at a cooking class?

Vice Grip

In Dallas restaurants, 2003 was all about smoke. The future may be all about hooch.

Cam Bam

Do chefs watch cooking shows?

End of the World

Americans may have tasted all there is to taste

Buttering Upscale

Are expensive butters really worth it?

Best Fancy Restaurant

Abacus

Food to Go

Dallas chefs learn their trade here, there and everywhere

Best fancy restaurant

Abacus

Value added

Abacus' total is greater than the sum of its parts

Hash Over

Kent's count; Mixed hash

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Abacus counts its blessings;
Bruno and Judy do Ellum

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