Mario Batali facts for kids

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Mario Batali

Mario Batali in 2005
Born	Mario Francesco Batali (1960-09-19) September 19, 1960 (age 64) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Cooking style	Italian
Education	Rutgers University Le Cordon Bleu
Spouse	Susi Cahn ​ (m. 1994)​
Current restaurant(s) Italian Wine Merchant (shop)
Previous restaurant(s) The Spotted Pig (investor) Babbo (restaurant) Lupa Osteria Romana Esca Otto Enoteca Pizzeria Casa Mono Bar Jamon Del Posto Enoteca San Marco (renamed Otto) B&B Ristorant Carnevino, (last three located in Las Vegas; all others are located in New York City) Tarry Lodge Eataly
Television show(s) Molto Mario Ciao America with Mario Batali Iron Chef America Mario, Full Boil The Chew "Moltissimo" Mario Eats Italy

Mario Francesco Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut, including Babbo in New York City, which received a Michelin star for several years. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, 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 ... against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.

Early life

Batali was born in Seattle on September 19, 1960, to Marilyn (LaFramboise) and Armandino Batali, who founded Seattle's Salumi restaurant in 2006. His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of part French-Canadian ancestry. Batali attended Rutgers University 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 development from 2001 to 2015.

Career

At 29, Batali was a sous chef at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara after previously working as a sous chef for the then-Four Seasons Clift Hotel San Francisco (since 1995, known as "The Clift", under changed ownership). Early in his career, Batali worked with chef Jeremiah Tower at his San Francisco restaurant Stars. Stars was open from 1984 until 1999 and is considered one of the birthplaces of the institution of the celebrity chef. 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, and Lidia Bastianich formed the B&B Hospitality Group, also known as Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group. The flagship restaurant for B&B is Babbo in New York City which had a Michelin star for several years.

Batali was a co-host of the ABC daytime talk show The Chew 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 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." 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.

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 through the David Lynch Foundation.

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.

Television and movie credits

Awards

• 1998 – "Best New Restaurant of 1998" from the James Beard Foundation 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.
• 2005 – "All-Clad Cookware Outstanding Chef Award" from the James Beard Foundation (national award)
• 2008 – One Michelin star, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, Michelin Guide
• 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), 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
• 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 and Erol Munuz ISBN: 978-0-7679-2048-3 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) ISBN: 978-1400034475