Mario Batali

Mario Batali Biography

Mario Francesco Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality. In addition to his classical culinary training, he is an expert on the history and culture of Italian cuisine, including regional and local variations. Batali co-owns restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong and Westport, Connecticut. Batali's signature clothing style includes shorts and orange Crocs. He is also known as "Molto Mario".

Family background and personal life

Batali was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of Marilyn (ne LaFramboise) and Armandino Batali. His father was of Italian ancestry and his mother was of French-Canadian and English descent. According to research by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America), Batali's paternal great-great grandparents opened an Italian foods store in 1903. Batali's family roots are found almost entirely in the Western United States. Mario"?s great-great-grandfather left Italy in 1899, going to Butte, Montana, to work in the copper mines, but later moved west to settle in Seattle.

Batali's family moved to Yakima, Washington, shortly after his birth. When Batali was about 8 years old, his family moved back to Seattle when his father was hired as an engineer for Boeing. His father went on to work for Boeing for thirty years before, upon retirement, opening Salumi, a specialty cured-meats shop in Seattle.

Mario moved to Spain with his family in 1975 and returned to the U.S. in 1978 to attend Rutgers University, where he majored in Spanish Language, Theatre and Economics, and graduated in 1982. He attended Le Cordon Bleu, though he left because he found the pace too slow and felt that the best way for him to learn was in a professional kitchen. Mario currently lives in New York City with his wife Susi Cahn (of Coach Dairy Goat Farm) and two sons, Leo and Benno. He also owns homes in Northport, Michigan, and Red Hook, New York.

Batali is one of the principal subjects of Bill Buford's 2006 book, Heat.

Professional career

During college Batali worked as a dishwasher at "Stuff Yer Face" restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey, quickly moving up to stromboli and pizza maker. Batali went on to serve as an assistant in the kitchens at the "Six Bells" public house in the Kings Road, Chelsea, under Marco Pierre White, La Tour d'Argent in Paris, Moulin de Mougins in Provence, and the Waterside Inn, outside London. In 1985 he worked as a sous chef at the Four Seasons Clift in San Francisco before being promoted to helm the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel's La Marina restaurant in Santa Barbara. At twenty-seven, Batali was the highest paid young chef in the company. In 1989 he resigned and moved to the northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne to apprentice in the kitchen at La Volta, where he sought to master a traditional style of Italian cooking inspired by his grandmother, Leonetta Merlino.

In 1993, Batali opened "Po". In 1998, with business partner Joseph Bastianich (son of Lidia Bastianich), he went on to start "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca". The pair have since opened seven additional restaurants, Lupa (1999), Esca (2000), Otto Enoteca Pizzeria (2003), Casa Mono (2004), Bar Jamon (2004), Bistro Du Vent (2004, closed in 2006), Del Posto (2005), Enoteca San Marco (2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada, later renamed Otto), B&B Ristorante (2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada), Tarry Lodge (in Port Chester, NY), Carnevino (2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada), Tarry Lodge in Westport, CT (2011), and a shop named Italian Wine Merchants (1999) which is no longer under Batali's ownership.

The New York Post reported in September 2007 that Batali"?s contract with the Food Network would not be renewed, and that he would no longer be featured on its Iron Chef America series. The article further reported that although Batali had not initially been dismissed from Iron Chef America, he decided not to make any further appearances on the show after the network made the decision to cancel his cooking show, Molto Mario, which had been airing on Food Network since 1997. A Food Network spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that Molto Mario would no longer be aired, but said that "Mario Batali is still part of the Food Network family. Sometimes family members go off and do other things. We completely blessed his decision to go to PBS ... He is still going to appear on Iron Chef America." No new episodes of Molto Mario have been filmed since 2004, but the network continued airing re-runs, with reruns airing initially on Fine Living and currently on Fine Living's replacement channel Cooking. Batali was absent on the season final of The Next Iron Chef, but he appeared twice during Iron Chef America's 2008 season, and his likeness has been licensed to appear in the Nintendo game Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. As of episodes airing in 2010, Batali's name and likeness do not appear in the show's opening credits.

Batali is featured in PBS"?s show Spain... on the Road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman (of The New York Times) and Claudia Bassols (a Spanish actress) featuring Spanish cuisine. The 13-episode series was filmed from October 2007 into early 2008. This will be the first of a series of shows that will be developed for PBS over the next several years. Batali is also in negotiations with Travel Channel to develop a series on Italian cuisine and culture with Anthony Bourdain that reportedly will be an "exhaustive, definitive Italy series with the kind of production values that Planet Earth had".

Batali teamed up with premium drum stick producer Vic Firth to create custom kitchen tools. Together they designed a line of wooden rolling pins, pepper grinders and salt grinders.

In 2009, Batali announced the creation of the Mario Batali Foundation "to educate, empower and encourage children". The foundation is an event-driven fundraiser for children"?s disease research, children"?s hunger relief, and literacy programs.

Batali has been critical of fellow international chef Gordon Ramsay, calling his cooking styles dated and boring. Although the New York Post reported, in 2009, of a feud between Ramsay and Batali, Batali has stated, "We really don't even know each other.... I'd love to hang out with him."

In 2009, Batali made his film debut in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In 2010, Batali teamed with High Five Labs to create his own iPhone app called Mario Batali Cooks!. The following year, Batali became a co-host of ABC-TV's daytime show The Chew.

Batali recently lost 45 pounds, hoping to shed about 80 pounds total. Batali said he decided to lose weight after he saw a picture of himself. He counts on light exercise and portion control to lose the weight. Batali said, "It"?s really about calorie intake and calorie outtake. You just have to eat enough to get you to the next meal."

Mario is featured also in the MMORPG World of Warcraft: Cataclysm: in Stormwind City there is the NPC Bario Matalli which is regarded as "Sous Chef" and feature the highest-level cooking recipes available.

In 2012, Mario Batali planned to open 3 restaurants in Hong Kong.

Social activism

Batali is a critic of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, an energy-intensive method of natural gas extraction. He has signed onto the cause of Chefs for the Marcellus, whose mission is to "protect [New York's] regional 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 [New York's] agricultural industry and hurt businesses, like ours, that rely on safe, healthy, locally sourced foods."

Mario is 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 of South Africa.

Controversy

Statement on bankers

While attending an event for Time on November 8, 2011, Batali stated "The way the bankers have toppled the way money is distributed - and taken most of it into their own hands - is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys". Following Batali's comments, users of Bloomberg's DINE function posted criticism of Batali, and called for a boycott of Batali's restaurant. Batali later stated through Twitter "To remove any ambiguity about my appearance at yesterday's Time Person of the Year panel, I want to apologize for my remarks. It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history."

Tip skimming at restaurants

In March 2012, Batali and his business partners agreed to pay $5.25 million restitution in order to resolve a lawsuit filed in 2010 by former employees. The lawsuit against Mr. Batali, filed in 2010, said that he and a partner, Joseph Bastianich, and their restaurants had a policy of deducting an amount equivalent to 4 to 5 percent of total wine sales at the end of each night from the tip pool and keeping the money.

One bartender was told that "it was a policy across the Batali restaurant group"? and that the money "went to the house,"? a judge, Richard J. Holwell, wrote in a ruling in May 2011. At Tarry Lodge, in Port Chester, N.Y., a spreadsheet divided a night"?s tips among waiters and documented a 4 percent deduction, Judge Holwell noted. At one staff meeting, an executive "refused to justify the policy and said it was not going to change,"? the judge wrote.

Employees were told the money was to cover expenses related to wine research and to cover broken glassware, the judge added. He made no findings on the merits of the case.

Other Batali restaurants named in the suit included Babbo, Del Posto, Casa Mono, Bar Jamn, Esca, Lupa and Otto, all in Manhattan.

Television credits

Molto Mario
Mediterranean Mario
Mario Eats Italy
Ciao America
Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters
Iron Chef America: The Series
ICA:All-Star Special
Mario, FULL BOIL (Special)
GladWare container commercials
Emeril Live (guest appearance)
Chefography (guest appearance)
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (guest appearance)
Spain... on the road Again (2008)
The Daily Show (guest appearance) (2010, 2011, 2012)
Bitter Feast (2010)
Saturday Night Live (cameo; 2010)
"The Chew"

Awards

Babbo, Michelin Guide, One Star
Three Stars from The New York Times for "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca"
"Best New Restaurant of 1998" from the James Beard Foundation for "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca"
"Man of the Year" in GQ's chef category in 1999
D'Artagnan Cervena Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2001
"Best Chef: New York City" from the James Beard Foundation in 2002
"All-Clad Cookware Outstanding Chef Award" from the James Beard Foundation in 2005 (national award)
"Best Restaurateur" from the James Beard Foundation in 2008
Culinary Hall of Fame Induction

Bibliography

Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages (1998), ISBN 0-609-60300-0
Mario Batali Holiday Food : Family Recipes for the Most Festive Time of the Year (2000), ISBN 0-609-60774-X
Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy (contributor) (2002), ISBN 0-609-60848-7
The Babbo Cookbook (2002), ISBN 0-609-60775-8
The Artist's Palate (foreword) (2003), ISBN 0-7894-7768-8
Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home (2005), ISBN 0-06-073492-2
Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style (2006), ISBN 0-89204-846-8
Spain...A Culinary Road Trip (2008), written with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Turshen. ISBN 978-0-06-156093-4
Italian Grill (2008), written with Judith Sutton. ISBN 978-0-06-145097-6
Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking (2010), written with Mark Ladner. ISBN 978-0-06-192432-3
Molto Batali: Simple Family Meals from My Home to Yours (2011), ISBN 978-0-06-209556-5