Lifestyle
Fashion Cafe: Kent Rathbun’s Mac & Cheese
Kent Rathbun
The busiest time of year is upon us. Decorating, shopping, traveling…entertaining! There’s so much to think about, that it’s easy to forget an ingredient or the turkey at the store. We have it taken care of. NeimanMarcus.com serves the best the gourmet world has to offer and our renowned chefs will ship straight from their kitchen to your doorstep.
One of the most delicious dishes this holiday season is Kent Rathbun’s Mac & Cheese. The comfort of toasty pasta blended with creamy white cheddar cheese, a hint of nutmeg, peas and smoked pork will delight the senses and satisfy every guest.
NMdaily stopped in the chef’s restaurant, Rathburn’s Blue Plate Kitchen, to see what makes his mac and cheese downright delectable.
With all the ingredients (pre-boiled pasta, butter, bacon, cheese, eggs, peas, and cream sauce) ready to go, we went straight to cooking! “It’s creamy, buttery and cheese. That is the key,” Rathbun says while adding the items one by one into a pan on the stovetop. Then everything is poured into an enameled Dutch oven and topped with more cheese. Now it’s off to the pizza oven, where it cooks uncovered until it’s toasty and the edges are brown.
Don’t have a pizza oven at home? “You can put it in the oven with the broiler on and have the same outcome,” says Rathbun.
The chef says he has always had the family favorite on the menu at his other two restaurants Jasper’s and Abacus. “It’s a different kind of macaroni and cheese, and some get pretty elaborate. We have a really nice recipe for lobster macaroni and cheese and shrimp macaroni and cheese, and sometimes we use truffle oil.”
Stirred and topped with fresh tomatoes for color.
So what’s the magic ingredient in this mac? “I like the egg aspect of it,” Rathbun says. “It’s bacon, eggs and cheese–what’s wrong with that?”
Friday, November 16 is the last day to order holiday food in time for Thanksgiving!
