He’s a bad boy but a damn good cook, plays a big part in my recurring Italian food fantasies…
As someone who knew Batali only from occasional guest appearances on other people’s cooking shows, I’d somehow gotten the impression that he was gay and happily partnered. There’s some douche who ran around in Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz type red sneakers and regularly had hissy-fit type tantrums in the early seasons (I looked it up–the guy’s name is Joe(?) Bastianich) that I thought Batali was in a relationship with.
Apparently they’re just business partners though. Huh. So Batali is straight and a scumbucket. Y’learn something new every day.
All stereotypes start with a kernel of truth. Writing about it is what made Anthony Bourdain what he is today. Exaggerating it is why Gordon Ramsay has a reality series based around it. Bobby Flay displays the machismo involved whenever he does Iron Chef or his own “Beat Bobby Flay” show.
Chefs, in general, are very athletic, very competitive types, and that historical “machismo” involved with such types is why the stereotype exists.
Not all chefs are like this, of course, but enough of them are to warrant the stereotype. Couple that competitive machismo with the sustained stress of running a kitchen (more so if it’s “known”) and you have the ingredients of such an accusation.
I’ve always adored Batali. I’ve always learned something from him whenever I’ve watched him. However, I can’t help thinking of Bill Buford’s Heat which is about him working for free in the Babbo kitchen. There’s a passage in there of two male sous chefs making lewd remarks about a B or C cup breast equaling particular measurements. Buford observes the scene and is taken quite aback. The female sous chef is deeply embarrassed. Buford senses this and makes it a point to stick by her. Both of the male sous eventually leave as the story continues, One fails badly running his own kitchen and the other burns out. At the close the female sous is still there.
But I’m assuming you don’t own multiple businesses that depend on those same bankers spending huge amounts of money in them.
I used to watch Molto Mario back in the day. Apparently that show ended in 2004. I didn’t know Mario Batali was still on TV. I liked his cooking, but never considered him a “celebrity chef” on the level of Bobby Flay or Emeril Lagasse.
He always seemed like the biggest snob, though, and I watched his show in spite of his off-putting personality rather than because of it. So had I remembered he still existed, I wouldn’t have been too surprised by this either.
I don’t like considering which chefs I actually like are going to be outed as assaulters/harassers in the near future though. There’s always Julia Child reruns, I guess.
Have you seen the things she does to chickens?
Yes. And they’re delicious.