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Mario Batali believes that olive oil
is as precious as gold, that shorts are acceptable attire for every
season, and that food, like most things, is best when left to its
own simple beauty. To that end, Mario creates simple magic night
after night in Manhattan's West Village and Theater District, dividing
his time between his many Italian hotspots, the flagship of which
is Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, an upscale dining room where Batali
has seamlessly combined traditional principles with intelligent
culinary adventure since June 1998.
Ruth Reichl at the New York Times hailed Babbo with three
stars, and the James Beard Foundation honored it with "The Best
New Restaurant of 1998" award. Mario and his team also own a Roman-style
trattoria called Lupa with Jason Denton, as well as a wine shop-just
off Union Square- called Italian Wine Merchants, at 108 East 16th
Street. Esca, a southern Italian seafood trattoria called Esca,
opened near the Theater District in April of 2000. In January of
2003, Batali and partner Joseph Bastianich opened another downtown
eatery, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, located just a few blocks from both
Babbo and Lupa.
Mario, whose original career path had him studying the golden
age of Spanish theater at Rutgers University, took his first bite
of culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in London, from which he
withdrew almost immediately due to a "lack of interest." An apprenticeship
with London's legendary Marco Pierre White and three years cooking
and learning in the Northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne, population
100, gave him what he needed to return to his native US and plant
his orange-clogged foot firmly in the behinds of the checkered tablecloth-Italian
restaurant establishment.
In addition to steering his businesses through their successes,
Mario Batali hosts his own programs, "Molto Mario", on the Television
Food Network, and a new program, "Mario Eats Italy", which premiered
in January 2001. He has authored Simple Italian Food (Clarkson
Potter 1998), as well as Mario Batali Holiday Food (Clarkson
Potter 2000); his third book, The Babbo Cookbook, has just
been released. Batali lives in New York City with his wife Susi
Cahn, of the Coach Dairy Goat Farm, and their two sons, Benno and
Leo.
Among his many culinary accolades, Mario was named "Man of the
Year" in the Chef category by GQ Magazine in 1999, and in
2002 won the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: New York City award.
Mario is also one of the recipients of the 2001 D'Artagnan Cervena
Who's Who of Food & Beverage in American, a prestigious lifetime
achievement award. |
