Nine women have accused Mario Batali of sexual harassment, with one claiming he assaulted her. Get the details about this disgraced chef.
1. He’s been accused of sexual assault. In December 2017, four women accused Mario Batali, 57, of inappropriate sexual behavior in an Eater exposé. That number has grown to nine, and two of his accusers came forth with horrific details during the May 20 episode of 60 Minutes. “He would ask to wrestle with me. He would try to grab me. He’s a monster,” Trish Nelson, a former waitress at The Spotted Pig restaurant, told Anderson Cooper. “I think Mario Batali’s a monster. He has been lauded as this incredible chef and this leader. But behind the scenes he’s hurtful and he does not respect women.”
2. He’s owned up to most of the accusations. “I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt,” Mario said in an official statement when the initial accusations came to light in Dec. 2017. “Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family.”
However, during the 60 Minutes episode, an anonymous woman accused Mario of sexually assaulting her in 2005. This woman was working in his restaurant, Babbo, when she claims he invited her to The Spotted Pig for a party. “It gets completely foggy for me,” the woman says. “And this is– part of the messy, scary part for me, there is a part where it– it all disappears. I remember a moment where I was on his lap, kissing him. Like, he was kissing me. And then I remember throwing up– in a toilet. And that is all.” She claims she woke up around dawn in a room of the third floor of the building, and that she had deep scratches on her legs and semen on her skirt.
“I vehemently deny the allegation that I sexually assaulted this woman.” Mario told 60 Minutes in a statement. “My past behavior has been deeply inappropriate and I am sincerely remorseful for my actions.”
3. The police are looking into these alleged assaults. Three years after that alleged incident with the anonymous woman, The Spotted Pig manager Jamie Seet claims she and other employees stopped Mario from assaulting a semi-conscious or unconscious woman. “Yeah, no doubt at all, and to this day I’m– I feel ashamed that I never called the police,” she told Anderson. The police are involved, though, as the New York Police Department confirmed to 60 Minutes that Mario is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
4. Mario’s out of work. “We have asked Mario Batali to step away from The Chew while we review the allegations that have just recently come to our attention,” an ABC spokesperson said in 2017. Following the 60 Minutes interviews with the alleged victims, chef Joe Bastianich said the company he co-founded with Mario, B&B Hospitality Group, was severing all ties with him, per CBS News.
“I am not attempting a professional comeback,” Mario said in his statement to 60 Minutes . “My only focus is finding a personal path forward — a path where I can continue in my charitable endeavors — helping the underprivileged and those in need.”
5. He was one considered a great chef. The Seattle, Washington native was born in 1960. He attended high school in Spain and developed his culinary knowledge during an apprenticeship with London’s Marco Pierre White, per Biography.com. Afterward, he would train by spending three years in Borgo Capanne, a Northern Italian village. In 1998, he opened his first restaurant, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, in the West Village. From there, he would star in Food Network shows Molto Mario and Mario Eats Italy. He was a co-host of The Chew from 2011 to 2017. Following the allegations, stores pulled his line of pasta sauces, as well as his multiple cookbooks.
In addition to his culinary work, Mario was involved in charity and activism, speaking out against fracking and working with The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit providing daily meals to students in South Africa. He parted ways with the organization after the accusations. In 2008, he and his wife, Susi Cahn, formed the Mario Batali Foundation, an organization that funds various children’s educational programs and pediatric disease research.
