 Mario Batali believes that olive oil is as precious as gold,
shorts are acceptable attire for every season, and food, like most things, is
best when left to its own simple beauty. To that end, Mario creates magic night
after night in his many New York City Italian hotspots, the flagship of which is
Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, an award-winning Greenwich Village dining spot where
Mario has seamlessly combined traditional Italian principles with intelligent
culinary adventure since June 1998.
Raised in Seattle, Mario initially studied the golden age of Spanish theater at
Rutgers University. Soon after graduating, he 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 chef
Marco Pierre White and three years of intense culinary training in the Northern
Italian village of Borgo Capanne (population 200) gave him the essential skills
and knowledge to return to his native U.S., anxious to plant his orange-clogged
foot firmly in the behinds of the checkered tablecloth-Italian restaurant
establishment.
Always eager to educate the masses about Italian cuisine, Mario hosts two Food
Network programs, "Molto Mario" and "Mario Eats Italy." He also engages in
fierce culinary battle in the Food Network series "Iron Chef America." Mario has
authored Simple Italian Food (Clarkson Potter, 1998), Mario Batali Holiday Food
(Clarkson Potter, 2000), and The Babbo Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, 2002). His
latest book, Molto Italiano - Simple Classic Italian Recipes to Cook at Home
(Harper Collins), will be released in the spring 2005.
Among his many accolades, Mario was named "Man of the Year" in the chef category
by GQ Magazine in 1999, and in 2002 he 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 America, a prestigious
lifetime achievement award.
In addition to Babbo, Mario also owns Lupa, a Roman-style trattoria in Greenwich
Village, and Italian Wine Merchants, a wine shop off Union Square. Esca, a
southern Italian seafood trattoria, opened near the Theater District in April
2000 and in January 2003, Mario and partner Joseph Bastianich opened another
downtown eatery, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, located near historic Washington Square
Park. Batali and Bastianich’s latest endeavor is Bistro du Vent, which serves
southern French fare around the corner from Esca. The duo’s next restaurant
venture is Del Posto, slated to open in 2005 in the Meatpacking District.
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