Mario Batali, the 57-year-old celebrity chef, might be a gourmet cook, but nobody appears to want what he is dishing out today. Batali has been ousted from the ABC show The Chew and two top retailers…
Mario Batali, the 57-year-old celebrity chef, might be a gourmet cook, but nobody appears to want what he is dishing out today. Batali has been ousted from the ABC show The Chew and two top retailers have discontinued his products, Walmart and Target.
Three of Batali’s former employees and a fellow chef have come forward to accuse Batali of groping or inappropriately touching them. This opened a door for more people to come through with even more accusations in the days that followed, according to Fox News.
When the initial accusations came to light, Batali issued an apology in a statement taking full responsibility for his actions and apologizing for those behaviors. What started out looking like a sincere apology, ended up as a recipe for cinnamon rolls. This put some Twitter users in the mood for dicing, slicing, boiling, chopping, and sauteing Batali online.
The celebrity chef not only got backlash from online comments, he was slammed on air by CNN’s Tina Brown. She suggested that Mario offer up a different recipe.
“How about pigs in a blanket, Mario?” she asked, then added, “sorry Mario, this ain’t the right kind of apology.”
Brown took to Twitter following her fury on air and tweeted, “Great time chatting with @ smerconish today. Told him my advice for Mario Batali — and a different recipe for his newsletter — after that bungled apology.”
“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team,” he said. “My behavior was wrong and I take full responsibility.” Batali then claimed he was going to work hard every day to regain the respect and trust that he once had.
According to BuzzFeed then the statement “took an unexpected turn.
To add insult to injury, Batali posted a picture of the rolls and a link to this recipe.
People didn’t take Batali launching his apology in tandem with a recipe lightly. One Twitter user used a bit of sarcasm in their comments.
“Well, sorry about the harassment, try this recipe for pizza dough cinnamon rolls!” Another person introduced Batali’s apology to her followers on Twitter by tweeting the following.
“When you’re apologizing for sexual assault and suddenly need a snack.” Then she included Batali’s apology statement.
Twitter users continued lambasting Batali with tweets.
“Because nothing says ‘I’m sorry for assaulting you’ like something sticky.”
“Wow. Just… wow. Also pleased he didn’t go with hot cross buns.”
“You know @MarioBatali is very serious about changing his behavior because he included a recipe for pizza dough cinnamon rolls along with his apology for sexually assaulting women.”
