Famous People Who Can't Stand Mario Batali

Celebrity chef Mario Batali and the culinary empire he built over the course of nearly three decades seemed too big to fail. His reach was vast. Through his partnership with fellow famous restaurateur Joe Bastianich and their Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, Batali had amassed a small kingdom of highly-regarded restaurants across the United States, authored more than a dozen cookbooks, and attracted a devoted following as a Food Network superstar. Batali's seemingly infallible domain, however, would inevitably collapse, rotting from the inside out. 

In 2017, the popular food and dining publication Eater broke a story about allegations of sexual misconduct against Batali made by four women who had either been under his employ or had worked directly with the restaurant-owner and television personality. In the Eater piece, accusations ranged from inappropriate touching and grouping to lewd conduct to overtly sexual remarks. Soon after the expose went live, later reporting revealed claims of outright sexual assault. 

The timing meant that Batali became one of the first high-status men within the realm of food culture to be implicated in the first wave of the #MeToo movement. What ensued was a steep and rapid fall from grace in the form of criminal charges. It also didn't help that some of Batali's contemporaries were all too happy to speak out against him. Batali's list of adversaries is long — and the stories behind them paint a larger picture of how his behavior resulted in some major consequences.

Culinary television personality, reputed author, and former confidante Anthony Bourdain, a chef who was known for a good feud or two himself, was one of the first to disavow the actions of Mario Batali, who was charged with indecent assault and battery in 2019.

In a piece posted on Medium only one day after the Eater piece went live, Bourdain was frank with his followers about his relationship with his old friend."In these current circumstances, one must pick a side," Bourdain wrote. "I stand unhesitatingly and unwaveringly with the women." Bourdain extolled the courage of those who came forward, reiterating that survivors "risk a crushing level of public skepticism, vilification, shaming, and retribution" and that "they have nothing to gain, and everything to lose." 

Bourdain said his once-glowing opinion of Batali had completely changed. "Any admiration I have expressed in the past for Mario Batali...however much I admired and respected [him], is, in light of these charges, irrelevant," he said. 

During the initial fallout after Mario Batali's sexual misconduct allegations surfaced, one of the first things to go was his gig as a co-host on ABC's The Chew, which he starred in alongside fellow gourmands Clinton Kelly, Michael Symon, Carla Hall, and Giada de Laurentiis. (The show, which ran for seven seasons, was canceled shortly after Batali got the boot.) While some of his Chew cohorts expressed surprise over the accusations against Batali, one member of the team wasn't having it.

"I did not have those exact experiences with him, but it doesn't come as a huge shock," de Laurentiis told the hosts of Eater's Upsell podcast. While de Laurentiis referred to her former colleague as a "charismatic person," she quickly clarified that she "wasn't legitimizing it by any means." The Everyday Italian star said, "I think any woman in any business goes through stuff. I think that we need to change our culture, and the children need to learn to respect human beings, no matter what you look like, who you are, male or female...someone says they don't wanna do something, they don't wanna do it, period."

De Laurentiis' words are backed by troubling statistics. According to NPR, a 2014 survey conducted by the nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Centers United found that 66 percent of female restaurant workers reported experiencing sexual harassment in some form from managers, with 80 percent experiencing incidents involving sexual misconduct from co-workers.