One on One with Iron Chef Winner Kent Rathbun

So if you are a fan of Iron Chef on the Food TV Network, you know that "Brothers Rathbun" beat out Iron Chef Bobby Flay in the battle of....ELK....last week. Here in Dallas, that's HUGE news as 1/2 of the Brothers Rathbun-Kent- chefs here in town--at Abacus and Jasper's restaurants. Kevin chefs and resides in Atlanta.

Imagine my delight when I ran right into the 1/2 of the Brothers Rathbun on Monday morning (2/25/08) at the ABC studios on the set of Good Morning Texas. Kent was there to chat about the big win, of course....I was there to chat about the benefits of Metamucil and the beautifyourheart.com website.

I've known Chef Rathbun for many years and met him back in the early days of the Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation events in Dallas. He's a nice guy, larger than life and on Monday, his excitement was infectious!

Here's what I learned from Kent:

• The show was taped in September

• The producers gave them 3 potential "battle" foods: elk, peaches and sausage

• Kent and Kevin had to submit recipes for all 3 battle foods--and they did not know until they got there that the item was going to be Elk.

• Bobby Flay actually dropped his large slab of Elk on the floor--and had to ask his sous chef to help him pick it up.

• The side of elk that Kent lifted was approximately 100 lbs.

• Kent had never butchered an elk before
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• Abacus is closing for a few weeks only to reveal a completely new interior..stay tuned.
  

Talk about a great way to start off the week!