12 Facts About Mario Batali

Mario Batali was born in Seattle on September 19,1960, to Marilyn and Armandino Mario Batali, who founded Seattle's Salumi restaurant in 2006.

Mario Batali's father is of Italian descent and his mother is of part French-Canadian ancestry.

At 29, Mario Batali was a sous chef at the Four Seasons Biltmore after previously working as a sous chef for the then Four Seasons Clift Hotel San Francisco.

Early in his career, Mario Batali worked with chef Jeremiah Tower at his San Francisco restaurant Stars.

Batali appeared in the Food Network show Molto Mario which aired from 1996 to 2004.

Mario Batali was a co-host of the ABC daytime talk show The Chew from its premiere in 2011 until 2017.

Mario Batali is a critic of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, a method of natural gas extraction.

Mario Batali served as an ambassador and on the board of directors for The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto, South Africa.

Mario Batali sold his minority ownership in Eataly, an Italian food marketplace.

In May 2019, Mario Batali was charged with indecent assault and battery in Boston.

In court, the accuser alleged that Mario Batali had groped her in April 2017 at a bar in Boston.

On May 10,2022, Mario Batali was acquitted in Boston Municipal Court by a judge who ruled that Mario Batali's conduct during the alleged incident was "not befitting of a public person of his stature" but agreed with the defense's arguments that his accuser had credibility issues and was motivated by financial gain to make her accusation.