Kent Rathbun, Jasper's
Achieving national and local recognition, Kent Rathbun has made a name for himself in the world of fine dining. Rathbun has cooked at the James Beard House in New York on two occasions and was nominated as the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: Southwest in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004. He has repeatedly appeared on a number of TV shows, including the TV Food Network's "Chef du Jour", Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, "Ready Set Cook", the CBS Early Show, the Rosie O'Donnell Show and NBC's Today Show. Rathbun was featured in Esquire Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Rosie Magazine, Bon Appetit, Southern Living Magazine, Nation's Restaurant News, Elle, Veranda Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the High Profile section of The Dallas Morning News. Rathbun was honored to be one of the featured chefs for the Bush 2001 Inaugural Ball and has participated in the Pre-SuperBowl Event, "Taste of the NFL" for the past two years.
Rathbun's achievements demonstrate how his creativity, dedication and range of delectable dishes have made him a renowned and impressive chef. Having stumbled onto work he loved Rathbun landed an apprentice job at La Bonne Auberge, a five-star French restaurant in Kansas City. This opportunity accelerated his career enabling him to move from kitchen to kitchen working with some of the best chefs in the country.
Rathbun has worked at many well-established restaurants throughout the country, including Mr. B's in New Orleans, American Restaurant and Milano in Kansas City, The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and the Landmark Restaurant in the Dallas Melrose Hotel. It was while at the Landmark he was able to make annual trips to visit the restaurant owners in Bangkok, Thailand. In turn, he was asked to cook for the flagship of the Dusit Hotel Company in Bangkok where he created a blend of Texas cuisine with local flavors. His experimentation and research allowed him to develop a spectacular style of Contemporary Global cuisine, drawing on Southwestern, Mediterranean and Cajun/Creole influences with a hint of Pacific Rim.
In 1997, Rathbun decided to follow his dream-- establishing his own world-class restaurant, Abacus-- the likes of which the city of Dallas has never experienced. Rathbun spent the two years managing the details of starting the business, and anticipated opening the venue in October of 1999. A primary concern was carefully selecting a restaurant design group to transform a nondescript building on McKinney Avenue (the home of Abacus) into a dramatic restaurant space that contributes to and reflects its urban neighborhood. Once underway, Rathbun along with the Engstrom Design Group, began extensively researching a variety of kitchen and restaurant designs from California and New York to Paris and Italy. Visiting the top restaurants in each city, Rathbun and the design team were able to come up with the contemporary, but warm décor of Abacus. Rathbun chose to build his kitchen in a European-style, without limitations-Dallas' first ever. From woks, smoker and wood burning grill to pizza oven and in-house pastry shop, Rathbun's kitchen has it all, enabling him to prepare any type of global cuisine in his own, renowned, eclectic style. With Five Stars from the Dallas Morning News, Four Stars from The Mobil Travel Guide and AAA Four Diamonds, Abacus has grown to become the top restaurant in Dallas.
Four years after the opening of Abacus, Rathbun then opened Jasper's. Again, he spent two years planning and researching the opening of his new concept. Using Engstrom Design Group, Jasper's features an upscale design with a "modern outdoors" theme. Its interior incorporates stained concrete floors, teak outdoor-style furniture, bamboo planters, dramatic lighting and artistic interpretations of natural elements in the overall design scheme. Jasper's menu is focused on the best of America's regional cuisine, including steaks, chops, fish, rotisserie chicken, salads, pasta and pizza. After being open just a few months, Jasper's was named one of Esquire Magazine's Top 20 Best New Restaurants in America, and continues to impress all who enter
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