![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MH2W5MFV6BH45G2FIDTRSR24U4.jpg\")
A smoker trailer belonging to Dallas chef Kent Rathbun was stolen from the gated parking lot of his catering kitchen. The reward for its return is up to $12,500.(Kent Rathbun)<\/p>\nThe search for a stolen smoker trailer belonging to Dallas chef Kent Rathbun is ramping up with a reward now totaling $12,500. <\/p>\n
The recognizable fire engine-red smoker, which Rathbun relied on for his barbecue catering business, was stolen from the gated parking lot of his catering kitchen earlier this month while he was out of town, Rathbun said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had this thing for 25 years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been like a baby to me for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A smoker trailer belonging to Dallas chef Kent Rathbun was stolen from the gated parking lot of his catering kitchen. The reward for its return is up to $12,500.(Kent Rathbun)<\/p>\n
Eat Drink D-FW<\/p>\n
The smoker was given to Rathbun as a birthday gift and it became a key part of his catering business. On July 21, the day he discovered it had been stolen, he was picking it up to cook for more than a thousand people at a pickleball championship tournament. <\/p>\n
When Rathbun \u2014 known for now-closed restaurants Abacus<\/a> and Imoto<\/a> \u2014 posted on social media that his trailer had been stolen, he offered a $1,000 reward for its return and asked his followers to be on the lookout for it. Since then, friends and fellow chefs have pitched in their own money to up the reward and help Rathbun find his smoker. <\/p>\n \u201cI am overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of people who have stepped up in this city,\u201d Rathbun said, \u201cand it tells me a lot about what kind of people Dallas has living in it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he knows it\u2019s likely that his smoker has already been repainted and had its signage stripped, but it would still be identifiable to him. <\/p>\n \u201cI modified the fryer box, all the shelving, added three burners on one side of it with custom covers, added a toolbox,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely custom.\u201d<\/p>\n He estimates the smoker is worth about $27,000 with its modifications and upgrades. <\/p>\n Security-camera footage is currently being tracked down, Rathbun said, but as of now, there are no leads in the theft. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just hoping that people will call and say they saw a smoker like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI am absolutely blown away and overwhelmed by the support I\u2019ve received. It humbles me.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The search for a stolen smoker trailer belonging to Dallas chef Kent Rathbun is ramping up with a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,26874,27144,1596,990,2105,988,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-105510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-barbecue","10":"tag-chefs","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-restaurants","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/M2V6IUOAM22B7UNKLI7PBSIKO4.jpg\")
Chef Kent Rathbun’s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes Abacus, Jasper’s and Imoto.(G.J. McCarthy)<\/p>\n