Mario Batali is an American restaurateur, chef, media personality and writer. In addition to his extensive culinary expertise he is also well versed about the culture and history of Italian Cuisine including all of its local and regional variations. Batali co-owns a number of restaurants in Singapore, Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles. On his shows he is often attired in Orange crocs and shorts which is his signature style.
Personal Life of Chef Batali
Batali was born in September 19th 1960 in Seattle, Washington, born to an Italian father and a French mother. His parents moved to Washington when Batali was 8 years old and shortly thereafter moved to Seattle where his father worked as an engineer for Boeing. Upon retiring his father opened a meat curing shop in Seattle.
When Mario Batali was 15, he moved to Spain and lived there for 3 years before coming back to the US in 1978 where he majored in theatre, economics and the Spanish language in 1982. He always had the fascination for food and cooking and joined Le Cordon Bleu which is noted to providing quality culinary education but soon left it because he found it too slow. He acquired most of his initial culinary education in professional kitchens.
While still in college Batali took up a part time job of a dish washer at the "Stuff Yer Face" restaurant in New Jersey before moving up the ranks to pizzaman and then went on to work as an assistant at "Six Bells" in Kings Road, Chelsea under Marco White, a prominent chef. Batali worked as the sous chef in 1985 and later on moved on to the role of Chief chef at Bilt More Hotel's La Marina restaurant in Santa Barbara. He became one of the the company’s highest paid young chefs in 1989. He resigned the very lucrative job and moved to Borgo Capanne to apprentice in the famous Italian Kitchen, La Volta where he mastered traditional Italian cooking.
Chef Maria Batali - Restaurants
In 1998 he partnered with Joseph Bastianich and opened several restaurants, list of which is given below
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)
B&B Ristorante (2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada)
Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, NY, CarneVino (2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada)
Chef Maria Batali - Television Shows
Mario Batali is also a celebrated television presenter and has featured in many television shows, most famous of them being ”Molto Mario” which completed 7 seasons on Food Network. He also featured in the famous “Iron Chef America”. Batali also made appearances on PBS’s “On the road again” apart from having his digital version in Nintendo’s game titled “Iron Chef America – Supreme Cuisine”
Batali setup the Mario Batali Foundation in 2009 to empower, educate and encourage kids. The foundation aims to raise money through various events and use the money on children’s hunger relief, disease research and literacy programs.