Celebrity chef Mario Batali has long been known for the bright orange Crocsthat he once wore everywhere, and for the celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrowand Jimmy Fallon, who often flocked to his side. But to the employees whoworked inside his restaurant empire, he was known for something else.
“He would hug you or kiss you or put his hands around your waist … or touchyour hips,” Trish Nelson, a former server at now-shuttered New York Cityrestaurant the Spotted Pig, in which Batali was the primary investor, says inDiscovery+’s new documentary, Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef , whichis available now. “We called him the red menace.”
Nelson is one of several former employees of Batali’s eateries who alleges inthe doc that the restaurateur, once behind dozens of venues, a co-host on TV’s_The Chew_ , the face of Eataly and, really, the creator of an entire foodempire, had engaged in sexual misconduct over the years. They describedinstances in which he had said sexually suggestive things to them or become —as one of his former restaurant partners, Steve Crane, put it, “touchy feely”— or worse.
Chef Mario Batali attends the afterparty for the premiere of 2009 movie_fantastic mr. Fox_ , in which he voiced a character, with co-stars BillMurray, Meryl Streep and Willem Dafoe, and director Wes Anderson. (Photo:Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
They described a man with two distinct sides: one who was charming andgregarious and another that came out after he drank too much. That guy, whosurfaced as the night progressed, was lewd and sleazy. Workers said they felttrapped and unheard, because the restaurant industry wasn’t equipped to dealwith their reports of sexual misconduct.
Nelson, for instance, recalled a night when she was bringing drinks toBatali’s table of seven. She could only carry six drinks, so she assured theseventh person that she would come right back with his. In front of everyone,she said, Batali told her that, if she sat on the man’s face, she would “comeagain and again.” Other women recounted that Batali had grabbed their breastsor behinds on multiple occasions.
Mario Batali attends an event hosted by Chrissy Teigen in Oct. 2016 in NewYork City. (Photo: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for NYCWFF)
There were also fans, like Sharelle Klaus, the co-founder of Dry Soda Co., whoalleged that Batali had inappropriately touched them in brief encounters.
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“He asked me if I wanted a picture with him,” Klaus said. “And as they weretaking the picture, he reached his hands down into my pants underneath myunderwear and grabbed my ass.”
Eva DeVirgilis, a former hostess at Batali’s New York City restaurant Babbo,revealed herself publicly as one of Batali’s accusers in the documentary. Shetold her story in an interview with 60 Minutes in 2018, but her face wasobscured then. Not this time.
DeVirgilis alleged that, in 2005, she agreed to go with Batali to the SpottedPig after her shift, expecting other people would go, too. But her boss endedup picking her up in a limo and whisking her to a candle-lit banquette, whereshe drank wine and blacked out.
“And then I have a moment, a flash, where I’m being kissed by him very, like,hard. And then I have another flash where I’m throwing up in a toilet. I sensethat he’s behind me,” DeVirgilis said. “And then there was nothing. And then Iwoke up… on a floor, hardwood floor. I had no idea where I was.”
Immediately, DeVirgilis said, she thought she had been drugged, because sheusually didn’t end up sick or blacked out while drinking. She also said thatshe found scratches on the insides of her legs and something that could havebeen semen on her skirt. So she went to Mount Sinai Hospital and had a rapekit done, but declined to go to the police, because she was worried about herpotential to get a job in the industry if she told her story. She gave noticeand left Babbo.
Batali issued a controversial apology for past behavior in Dec. 2017, as Eaterpublished four women’s accusations against him, but he also has denied allallegations of sexual assault. He to be part of Discovery+’s new documentary,and Yahoo was declined to reach him for comment.
but Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef explains that he was only part ofthe problem in an industry that long allowed bad behavior by many to gounchecked. As several journalists who covered alleged sexual misconduct byBatali — Julia Moskin and Kim Severson, of the New York Times and freelancerIrene Plagianos, who wrote about the celebrity chef for Eater — explained inthe documentary, their reporting on him came about in the wake of the HarveyWeinstein scandal and the #MeToo Movement.
After their reports emerged in 2017, Batali’s deals vanished.
Mario Batali leaves a Boston courtroom on May 24, 2019, after his arrangementon charges of indecent assault and battery. (Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP viaGetty Images)
New York Attorney General Letitia James eventually investigated the SpottedPig and the restaurant group co-owned by Batali, where she found wrongdoing.While Batali was not charged with a crime in New York, he was charged withindecent assault and battery in Boston for forcibly grabbing and kissingNatali Tene at a local bar in 2017.
“I’ve never been touched before like that,” Tene had testified, “likesqueezing in between my legs, squeezing my vagina to pull me closer to him, asif that’s a normal way to grab someone.”
The judge found that Tene had “significant credibility issues,” because oftext messages she had sent about the encounter with Batali and because of herbehavior as a juror in another case, and Batali was found not guilty in May.
He also has settled multiple civil lawsuits related to sexual misconduct inthe past few years.
Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef **is currently streaming on