Mario Francesco Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, and restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in

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;

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;

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; and Newport Beach, California;

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;

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;

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; and

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. Batali has appeared on the

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, on shows such as ''Molto Mario'' and '' Iron Chef America,'' on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site '' Eater'' revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.

Early life

Batali was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

on September 19, 1960, to Marilyn (LaFramboise) and Armandino Batali, who founded Seattle's

Salumi Salumi (singular salume) are Italian meat products typical of an antipasto, predominantly made from pork and cured. Salumi also include bresaola, which is made from beef, and some cooked products, such as mortadella and prosciutto cotto. The w ...

restaurant in 2006. His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of part French-Canadian ancestry. Batali attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in New Brunswick, New Jersey, while working as a cook at the pub/restaurant Stuff Yer Face. In 1994, he married Susi Cahn and together they have two sons. Batali is the son-in-law of Miles and Lillian Cahn, founders of Coach Inc. Batali's brother Dana Batali was Director of

Pixar RenderMan Pixar RenderMan (formerly PhotoRealistic RenderMan) is proprietary photorealistic 3D rendering software produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar uses RenderMan to render their in-house 3D animated movie productions and it is also available as ...

development from 2001 to 2015.

Career

At 29, Batali was a

sous chef A sous-chef is a chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the ...

at the Four Seasons Biltmore after previously working as a sous chef for the then Four Seasons

Clift Hotel The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel is a historic hotel located two blocks from Union Square at the intersection of Geary Street and Taylor Street, San Francisco, California. History In 1913, Frederick C. Clift, an attorney from a large family in the ...

San Francisco (since 1995, known as "The Clift", under changed ownership). Early in his career, Batali worked with chef

Jeremiah Tower Jeremiah Tower (born 1942) is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary ...

at his San Francisco restaurant,

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

. Stars was open from 1984 until 1999 and is considered one of the birthplaces of the institution of the

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

. Batali appeared in the Food Network show ''Molto Mario'' which aired from 1996 to 2004. The show made Batali a household name and popularized the Food Network. In 1998, Batali,

Joe Bastianich Joseph Bastianich (born September 17, 1968) is an American restaurateur, winemaker, author, television personality, and musician. He, along with his mother and business partner Lidia Bastianich, co-owns thirty restaurants in four countries, incl ...

, and

Lidia Bastianich Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich (; born February 21, 1947) is an Italian-American celebrity chef, television host, author, and restaurateur. Specializing in Italian and Italian-American cuisine, Bastianich has been a regular contributor to ...

formed the B&B Hospitality Group, also known as Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group. The flagship restaurant for B&B is Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca in New York City which has a Michelin star. Batali was a co-host of the ABC daytime talk show ''

The Chew ''The Chew'' is an American cooking-themed talk show that aired for seven seasons from September 26, 2011 to June 28, 2018, having replaced the soap opera ''All My Children'', on ABC as part of the network's weekday daytime lineup. The name wa ...

'' from its premiere in 2011 until 2017. In 2012, a lawsuit was settled by Batali (and B&B) with 117 members of the restaurant staff, who alleged that the Batali organization had skimmed a percentage of the tip pools in his restaurants over a period of years.

Philanthropy and social activism

Batali is a critic of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, a method of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

extraction. He has signed onto the cause of Chefs for the Marcellus, whose mission is to "protect ew York'sregional foodshed from the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (fracking)." In May 2013, Batali co-wrote an opinion article with chef Bill Telepan for the New York '' Daily News'', in which the two wrote that "Fracking ... could do serious damage to ew York'sagricultural industry and hurt businesses, like ours, that rely on safe, healthy, locally sourced foods." Batali was the subject of a 2007 book titled ''Heat'' by Bill Buford which detailed his philosophy to various aspects of social activism, as well as cooking and life. Batali served as an ambassador and on the board of directors for The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. In December 2017, Batali stepped down from his role with the organization in response to sexual misconduct allegations against him. In 2008, Batali and his wife Susi Cahn founded the Mario Batali Foundation, funding various children's educational programs and pediatric disease research. He supports the practice of

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes ...

through the

David Lynch Foundation The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (or simply DLF) is a global charitable foundation with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded by film director and Transcendental Me ...

Cooking philosophy

In a 2012 interview, Batali said that good Italian cooking was characterized by simplicity, an insight he attributed to his time working at a restaurant in Borgo Capanne, Italy.

Sexual misconduct allegations

On December 11, 2017, restaurant news website ''Eater'' reported that four women accused Batali of sexual harassment and sexual assault. By the following day, four more women had come forward. Batali took a leave of absence from his position at the management company Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group. Producers of ABC's ''

'' asked him to step aside temporarily, while his fellow co-hosts publicly addressed the allegations on air, and he was fired from the show on December 14, 2017.

halted plans to release episodes of his television show ''Molto Mario'' after the allegations. Target announced it pulled Batali's pasta sauces and cookbooks out of sales. In May 2018, more accusations of sexual assault against Batali were aired on an episode of '' 60 Minutes'', and the New York Police Department confirmed it was investigating Batali for his past behavior, including an alleged assault that took place at The Spotted Pig, a restaurant where Batali was an investor. Batali denied an allegation of sexual assault, but said "My past behavior has been deeply inappropriate and I am sincerely remorseful for my actions." Days later, Batali's company B&B Hospitality Group announced it would be closing its three

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...

restaurants after the Las Vegas Sands Corp. terminated the companies' relationship. In January 2019, New York City police declined to charge Batali over two alleged sexual assaults in his New York City restaurants due to insufficient evidence. In March 2019, Batali surrendered ownership of his stakes in Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, a partnership between Batali and the Bastianich family, including Joe and Lidia Bastianich. He also sold his minority ownership in

Eataly Eataly is a chain of large format/footprint Italian marketplaces (food halls) comprising a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items, and a cooking school. Eataly was founded by Oscar Farinetti, an entrepreneur for ...

, an Italian food marketplace. The Bastianiches said B&B Hospitality Group's name will change. Batali was the first chef to surrender ownerships in all his restaurants after reports of sexual misconduct. In July 2021, Batali, Bastianich, and their former restaurant company agreed to a settlement in the New York state case that was under investigation by the Attorney General of New York wherein they would pay $600,000 to more than 20 former employees (men and women) of three restaurants in Manhattan.

Trial and acquittal

In May 2019, Batali was charged with indecent assault and battery in

. In court, the accuser alleged that Batali had groped her in April 2017 at a bar in Boston. Batali pleaded not guilty and chose a

bench trial A bench trial is a trial by judge, as opposed to a trial by jury. The term applies most appropriately to any administrative hearing in relation to a summary offense to distinguish the type of trial. Many legal systems (Roman, Islamic) use bench ...

. On May 10, 2022, Batali was acquitted in Boston Municipal Court by a judge who ruled that Batali's conduct during the alleged incident was "not befitting of a public person of his stature" but agreed with the defense's arguments that his accuser had credibility issues and was motivated by financial gain to make her accusation.

Television and movie credits

Awards

* 1998 – "Best New Restaurant of 1998" from the

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The prog ...

for "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca" * 1999 – "Man of the Year" in GQ's chef category * 2001 – D'Artagnan Cervena Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America * 2002 – "Best Chef: New York City" from the James Beard Foundation * 2004 – Three Stars from ''The New York Times'' for "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca" from

Ruth Reichl Ruth Reichl (; born 1948), is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...

. * 2005 – "All-Clad Cookware Outstanding Chef Award" from the James Beard Foundation (national award) * 2008 – One Michelin star, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca,

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of ...

* 2008 – "Best Restaurateur" for Joe Bastianich/Mario Batali for Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca from the James Beard Foundation. * Culinary Hall of Fame Induction.

Works

* ''Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages'' (1998), * ''Mario Batali Holiday Food: Family Recipes for the Most Festive Time of the Year'' (2000), * ''Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy'' (contributor) (2002), * ''The Babbo Cookbook'' (2002), * ''The Artist's Palate'' (foreword) (2003), * ''Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home'' (2005), * ''Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style'' (2006), * ''Spain...A Culinary Road Trip'' (2008), written with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Turshen. * ''Italian Grill'' (2008), written with Judith Sutton. * ''Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking'' (2010), written with Mark Ladner. * ''Molto Batali: Simple Family Meals from My Home to Yours'' (2011), * ''America – Farm to Table: Simple, Delicious Recipes Celebrating Local Farmers written with Jim Webster'' * ''Mediterranean Summer, A Season on France's Côte d/Azur and Italy's Costa Bella'' (2007), written by

David Shalleck David Shalleck is a fine dining Chef, culinary producer, and author working in the United States and abroad. For over two decades, he has cooked in restaurants and for special events in New York, San Francisco and in California's Napa Valley as w ...

and Erol Munuz Contributor Foreword by Mario Batali Batali is also a main subject of Bill Buford's book ''Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany'' (2007)

References

External links

*
Biography on Food Network's site

Mario Batali at the Chef and Restaurant Database
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Batali, Mario 1960 births 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers American male chefs American people of French-Canadian descent American people of Italian descent American restaurateurs American television chefs Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu Chefs from New Jersey Chefs from New York City Chefs from Seattle Chefs of Italian cuisine Food Network chefs Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants James Beard Foundation Award winners Living people People acquitted of sex crimes People from Seattle Rutgers University alumni Writers from New Brunswick, New Jersey Writers from New York City Writers from Seattle