MARIO BATALI
The Edible Garden section of the New York Botanical Garden will be put to good use this summer as the expert in Italian cuisine, Mario Batali, presents a series of family-style dinners. The dinners commenced on July 15 and have three more dates on July 26, August 2 and August 12. Family Dinners with Mario Batali's Chefs is an interactive event in which children and adults will participate. They will learn gardening and cooking skills accompanied by demonstrations by a few of Batali's featured chefs. The dinners are all three-course meals and the ingredients used will be those harvested from the garden.
Mario Batali is one busy man, his three-starred Greenwich Village restaurant, Babbo, has just opened its doors for lunch. According to the rumor mill, Mario penned the top secret menu himself, making this venture a priority for his multitude of high-end Italian eateries. Today's service is the first public lunch Babbo has ever served in the restaurant's fourteen year history.
Boasting one of the most hard to obtain reservations in the entire city, Babbo’s premier lunch service will be walk-ins only. Those who aren’t lucky enough to attend today will be able to make a reservation soon. The daytime Babbo diners will enjoy steamed cockles, guinea hens, beef cheek raviolis, as well as a tasting menu option. The tasting menu is available for $49 per person with an additional $35 per person for wine pairings. The portions for lunch menu will be a bit smaller than during dinner service. The size of the portions for lunch has dictated the lower price many of the dishes on the menu, including Secondi course dishes.
Mario Batali and business parter, Joe Bastianich, have been embroiled in a wage-related lawsuit with their restaurant workers since July 2010. Yesterday, Law 360 repoted that the chef and restaurateur will settle the suit for $5.25 million.
According to Law, the 117 plaintiffs involved in the class action suit claimed that there had been a pattern of "illegal tip-skimming," where the restaurant servers were regularly shorted their wages over the course of many months. A case-related article on The Huffington Post states that, "Batali's restaurants, among other misdeeds, took four or fiver percent of tips given to servers for alcohol and wine sales to pay sommeliers' salaries."
This week kicked off Eataly’s in-house, upscale Italian pizzeria chain, Rossopomodoro’s “Pizza a Quattro Mani” event. Meaning pizza made by four hands in Italian, this event will entail exactly that, a rotating group of guest Neapolitan-style pizzerias cooking alongside pizza maker, Rosario Granieri. Starting at 5 p.m. for the next five Mondays, guest pizzeria’s will use Rossopomodoro’s two, side-by-side wood-fired pizza ovens some of New York City’s best know pizzerias will create their signature pizza’s for Eataly patrons along with Rossopomodoro’s regular menu.
Owners of Num Pang Sandwich Shop, Ben Daitz and Ratha Chaupoly have teamed up with Mario Batali to create a super sandwich that will benefit the Food Bank for New York City and the Cambodian Children's Fund. The sandwich, called the Batali Pang, is comprised of cotcchino sausage, balsamic pickled onions and cacio de Roma cheese, folded into the the traditional Num Pang fixings (chili mayo, pickled carrots, cucumber, and cilantro on toasted semolina flour baguette). The Batali Pang launches today (and lasts for one month) and is available at both Num Pang locations for $9.75 ($6 of every sandwich will go to charity).
Renowned cocktail expert, Tony Abou Ganim, was winner of Iron Chef America 2007 with Mario Batali, is the National Ambassador of the US Bartenders Guild, and Associate Member of the Museum of the American Cocktail. Obviously a world-class bartending connoisseur, Tony passes on his knowledge to wannabes and drink-lovers alike. Learn how he rose to fame, as well as tips for creating the perfect cocktail!
Uh-Oh Mario!
A Forbes writer was quoted today after reporting that Mario Batali had some choice words to describe the Wall Street community at a Time Magazine panel honoring "Person of the Year." Since rumors of the Italian food guru's choice words surface, twitter and food blogs around the country have been blowing up in respose to the comments.
So what, exactly, did Batali say to get his former fans so riled up? According to a post on Grub Street, his exact words were, "...so the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys...[Their] evil has had a huge effect on the world." Um, ok...
He may be the one casting judgement on Top Chef, but Tom Colicchio is about to let the spotlight fall on his own performance.
Chef Tom will perform at Hill Country tonight in honor of Restaurant Industry Night. The event will donate 20 percent of all food and beverage profits to C-Cap, an organization that helps underprivileged youths begin careers in the food industry. The evening will also feature of the musical stylings of the equally smooth-scalped restaurateur, Joe Bastianich. Doors will open at 7pm and more information is available here.
Way back in April, ABC announced plans to cancel forever-running soap opera All My Children and replace it with their new food-focused talk show, The Chew. The show will feature a “rotating cast” of chefs including Mario Batali, Michael Symon and former Top Chef-er Carla Hall. Rounding out the foodie fodder will be nutrition expert Daphne Oz (yes, she is related to that Oz) and entertaining expert (and What Not To Wear alum) Clinton Kelly. More promising, the show will be produced by Gordon Elliot, the man behind such other food favorites as Paula Deen’s Home Cooking and Down Home with the Neelys.
You know it's loud, a bit fussy and- sometimes- smells of cheese. So? What 1-year-old doesn't share these qualities?
Of course, the toddler in question is Eataly, Italian megastore/designer food hall that has been supplying the city with just-made mozzarella and fresh pasta since August 31, 2010. In celebration of Eataly's first birthday, the six restaurants in the space will welcome diners for a single course at each restaurant. All dishes will be accompanied by a wine pairing. Attendees will travel in groups of 40 and can buy tickets for a single seating from 5:00pm to 9:30pm. According to the company's latest Facebook posting, there are still spots available at a number of the seatings, however space is very limited so call or check their website immediately if interested.
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