Mario Batali

it is a little different than i expected when i started cooking but not as much as it may seem /// all in all it is a good thing it is not like i am a rock star and people chase me down with strange questions about the meaning of my liner notes or oblique lyrics.. it is more people recognize me on the street and say something like.... whatsup with the shrimp in the cioppino... isn;t it only crab and squid??? or something along those lines... i think it has a lot to do with my accessibility everyone knows where i work, so if they want to say hello, or make a wierd comment about my shoes or talk about iron chef, or just trash other hosts,or me on the food tv they can come virtually into my house at babbo or lupa or otto or esca .... and say it, whatever they want... this also makes it easy for me to be plain old me, i am comfortably on my turf and we can just talk about food or music or whatever... so my life is not so glam or fancy, i still have to take out the trash and load the car for vacation and wait in line for a rental car so it has not been that hard to adapt to... or even that strange, i guess i like it, but i would probably like being a pool boy in malibu too mb

hey bux both andy nusser the exec chef at babbo from opening till last fall and my self were lucky enough to go to high school in spain, he in barcelona and me in madrid... so we had always discussed the option of a "spanish" place... we took a trip to barcelona last fall as a test drive and fell in love withg cal pep and bar pinoxto in la boqueria... the results are pretty obvious, we ripped them both off completely, but in the same vein we have kind of babbo ized spain in that there are few dishes at casa mono that you might find in spain, and yet the place feels intrinsically spanish hmmmmm go figure, or at least go there and eat mb

rick bayless is one of the most thoughtful and gifted people in the food business and must have had a good reaon to do the bk sammie commercial, i am sure he did not forsee the shit storm that followed... i am dissatisfied with the nature of fast food machines and could not even think about the endorsement for the simple reason that i could not believe it could help anyone in any way press and seal on the other hand is something i like and use and yet it is still somewhat irresponsible to endorse any product not my opwn in retrospect... we all live and learn who knows, i could be out there with ed mcmahons minions tomorrow if it would guarantee a riskfree life for my kids mb

it seems that every cook in italy over the age of 50 knows the cork and encephalopod trick and nobody any younger does... hmmm it works trust the elders!!!!! for the tripe i add vanilla and a little red wine vinegar to the initial cook, it removes the uric acid smell that for some reason the french seem to love in their andouillettes, oh those smelly frogs!!!it is important not to over cook the tripe in the first cook, or the whole thing gets the texture of horse snot, or so imagine the equine nose batter must be mb

the mollusk in question seems to be something called tarufi di mare sea truffles they are ancient mollusks that gow a centimeter per year and grow inside volcanic rock ... to get to them you need to blast the rocks apart destroying the bed once and for all... they are severely limited and generally illegal, and thus considered a super delicacy they are exquisite

i do not understand the confusion around shorts and their appropriateness i wear them everywhere without even asking i am caliente!!! i love any thing anyone else makes but lust after the chilified flavors of se asia when not working it is just something i do not do for myself mb

i am truly a lucky guy... does anyone think i just evolved into a good cooker with a passion??? it is all from my family,,,, mom and dad and sis and bro are all good cooks, i just happened to have hit the big time foist... watch out for them, all of them... and yes as soon as pops makes enough salami for a place bigger than his 13 seats i hope i am the first in line for the stuff mb until he gets up to full production there i doubt he will have time to do something in nyc

hey fg the recipe is simple the ingredients are accesible too take the time and do it right use a heavy bottomed pot like creuset or daniel bouloud's new stuff..... in 4 tb butter and 4 tb oil slowly sweat 2 celery, an onion and half a carrot, (all chopped fine , even in the food processor is alright) for 20 minutes, then add 1/2 pound each ground beef, veal and pork shoulder and cook until they start to brown in their own rendered fat, about 45 minutes over low heat.. add 1 cup milk and reduce to zero, then 1 cup white wine and reduce to zero, then add 2 cans tomato paste (italian naturally) and cook until it is rust colored, about 30 minutes.... then add 2 cups of good chicken stock and simmer 2 hours covered.... season to taste with salt ( no pepper) when you add the perfectly cooked noodles to the right amount of sauce add 1 tb butter and 3 tb freshly grated parm and toss off of heat 30 seconds till melting and delicious and serve to a bolognese xxoo mb

breakfast eggs in a hole with green tabasco lunch grilled pecorino toscano cheese sammies with relish, jalapenos and sri racha dinner spaghetti aglio olio and peperoncino all can be made in 10 minutes and are always served with broccoli, green beans or spinach, any of them sauteed 10 minutes in olive oil with garlic but beware the odd sprinkle of parsley, it renders all of the above completely inedible mb

my faves in nyc are the minimalists i love rebecca charles and everything at pearl, i love gabrielle hamilton at prune, i think mark ladner at lupa and dave pasternack at esca are redefining italian simplicity with an american pride and i am dying to try josh dechellis at sumile rocco dispirito's food at union pacific still defines contemporary cooking, despite the tv show's smackdown of his public personna as far as trendy organs they will come in and go out of fashion.. for some it ain't no trend it is life style mb

i think that the most essential component to true italian cooking is its confidence in whatever product it may be whether it is an anchovy from ischia or a spot prawn from santa barbara the issue is not the actual ingredients provenance, but its exaltation, it ultimate saturation of flavor and locale... it existential expression of its place, its own food, its own air its true individuality unobfuscated by chef ego, or crappy oil or mere table salt... the problem in europe in the last 20 years and in america for the last 40 is that the greatest restaurants were always perceived to need to serve the greatest ingredients ie scottish salmon, iranian/rusian caviar, maine or breton lobster, foie gras from the sw france blah blah blah...what that reinforced was a homogenization of the food across the lands the true future both in italy and the rest of the world is the celebration of the exquisiteness of the local and supreme...king salmon and olympia oyster in washington striped bass and montauk lobsters in southhampton, whitefish and teal in northrn indiana and mussels and hot peppers in puglia, or tiny soft shell crabs, sole and little shrimp called schie in the venetian lagoon, or choucroute in alscace the essential aesthetic fo italina food is to appreciate and celebrate these things... the italians just do it better because of their penchant for ligthness in texture and flavor... i may be rambling here but the true itlian spirit is to serve the main flavor as its own self, its own mantra, without apology or even explanation hmm???? of course the pasta course becomes that to the nth degree oil, garlic, chili flakes and a touch of bread crumbs and the world parla italiano no?? mb

now for some real meaty questions 1 we sail tonite to singapore waits just sneaky enough to justify talking dirty 2 annalisa PIL hard guitar to make me drive faster 3 lust for life iggy pop the mantra 4 peaches in regalia zappa i'd need some sax 5 starless and bible black crimson for the prayers you are the instigator of all time tb see you in nyc mb

life is indeed a constant source of joy!!!!! every breath a gift, every moment a potential delight ... ask anyone who is dead... thiis is the real thing mb

hey luke my faves in boston are radius for fancy, via matta and rialto for ital style, blue ginger for expert fusion , anywhere that susan regis is cooking...and call michael schlow for the 2 chinese places we go to they are delish he is the chef at radius mb

we are talking to people in las vegas but have not nailed any hands to a cross yet we are planning on opening a classic italian joint on 10th ave at 16th st next spring it will be a little bigger than anything else and the chef will be mark ladner from lupa but no other plans elsewhere yet we are still very mom and pop in our development strategy mb

hey sash don't take the 3 stars as a demotion it is what we intended to do... i play loud perry farrell at 845 when i am in the mood for exactly that reason... i am in the mood... people who want a focus group experience do not come to babbo ....our art is not by commitee, come to think of it, there is none anyway... we were not insulted by the wise new critic, we were happy he may have edged us into the nearly 4 star category led zeppelin and all it is the food that is the center stage, the acoutrements are added value mb

ina word yes ..... americans, a high percentage of whom hail from the southern part (read poorer and more likely to leave the dirt poor pst war south) of the boot, have modified their recipes over time and many have included the southern penchant for more garlic and more chiles, and yes, more of everything since we are now rich and can afford more meat and cheese and everything else too.... hell lets cook everyday like it is a holiday.... or something like that is how i imagine it might have gone that is not to say that italian american food is bad... it is still the product of beautiful family traditions and heirloom recipes but is it authentic??? not so much one of the first thing you will notice eating in italy is the spareness, the nearly extreme austerity of the food... it seems to be lacking a lot of the white noise that you will taste, particularly in restaurants, in the us... it is for that reason that great authentic tasting italian food eludes us here in the us it is nearly counter intuitive to us that a little is great and a little more is not as great.... keep on cookin tho, as we mature as cooks we feel less need to impress with quantity and more to impress with simplicity mb

had i not become a chef i would have further tried to understand organic chemistry and pursued oceanography, and in its inevitable lacking i would have studied other aquatic life as a pool boy in malibu really five tools pasta rolling machine making and eating noodles are the key to living a life that understands our potential for gretness 1 good sharp knife is all i really need often to open a perfect box of figs, never to cut those figs a good slicing machine, without which prosciutto and pancetta would have to be eaten cut thickly... not that bad, but not as good as perfectly paper thin a counter or cuting board of considerable size to make pasta on in the traditional well method, or to roll it out in the matarello method... just to have space in the kitchen for my 2 boys to work side by side with me a large enamel coated pot to cook everything in from the ragu to the noodles to the brasing it can do it all as a one pot band mb

if you think it is good.... it is good they put the dates on good olive oils because in the italian opinion its flavor fades over time and it does... olives are harvested right after grapes in november usually and then immediately pressed and spun to create fresh oil called olio nuovo for the first 2 or 3 months when it is young and new it has a brighter color, more intense peppery finish and a more resolute component base you can taste the glycosides as well as the fruit and the whole kind of citric nose is present.. after , say, feb, the new oil is just regular oil and survives until the next harvest depending on storage, and it is light more than heat that causes decomposition, the oil loses a lot or a little of the intensity everyday, but is still good i know more than two tuscans who claim to stop using oil in october awaiting the arrival of the new crop, but when i ask what they use in its place to dresss their salad and everything else in the world they go mute.... your oil is as good as you need it to be use it with abandon mb

also i may be a good sprinter, but a marathon runner??? not!!!

i am not now, nor have i ever been, nor do i harbour any false expectation of ever being, a great baker.... i can schwing a few loosely conceived fruit tarts into the abyss and am at home with cookies and brownies out of the duncan hines repertoire, but the exzacting consistancy necessary to great baking is not in my genetic puddle and i go forth, unafraid, with gina depalma (babbo pastry chef) at my side into the new world every thing she makes is my favorite thing

child of the seventies rock and roll was my first 3 star dining experience and i will not forget the physiological response i first felt check out the new dork times review of babbo on june 9 for some insight by the new critic we play music in all of our joints and feel it to be an integral part of the experience i field 20 complaints a week at babbo alone and suggest earlier dining for those who don't care for it i get more than 50 positive comments as well there is rarely art by commitee mb

historically protein poor agricultural italy's table was first set with a large portion of grain based pasta rice, polenta or rich soup, followed by either cheese or a small portion of protein, heightened or extended on religious holidays as a way of strengthening the churches hold on the gullets of the working class into the 20th century with affluence, wealth and distribution the birth of the antipasto course was initially regarded as the affectation of the rich, and was then embraced by all in the post war economy of comfort and tv.. then diet fads and the response to the new weight of the bourbons we are now at a new crossroads post atkins post south beach savvy long term consumers realize that limited portions of pure carbs and starchy grains are in fact good for the body in limited portions and not every day.... blah blah at all of the restaurants associated with me pasta is selling more now than ever... is this reaction??? i think not, tis probably due to the fact that we make it like they do in italy... properly cooked and sauced pasta is delicious and not filled with hollow glycemic elevators.. it is goooooood for you!!!!! all that said the best way to do it right at babbo or lupa or esca or otto is to order an antipasto, split a pasta with someone at your table and then have a main course, followed by a dessert or cheese we sell a lot of pasta mains and it does not bother me that some walk out without having tried the depth of the menu... some days you want the whole shebang and somedays you want dessert followed by a salad.... cooool beans ... we are in the business of making people happy and hopefully providing them the opportunity to come back often and for a long time if you pay attention to the organism and nurture (not torture) it you will live long and prosper watch the olive oil too..... it is, in the end, a fat too.... replacing the satch fats is good, but adding more fat to our fat/carb rich american world is also risky mb yes we are starting perfect pasta at otto on the 12th you heard it here first

iron chef was a an experience that far exceeded my expectations... first of all the team tht produced it was spectacularly organized and very enabling in terms of helping us cook and letting us do what we hoped to do, most importantly, look good cooking under severe pressure in a competitive situation.... all of the time during the conversations i had with food net mgmt i had always thought that it was unsaid but implied that we new comers would win... alas, when i arrived it was apparent that neither the judges nor the production team had been let it on "my little secret" for the main reason... there was no little or big "fix" in.... so the whole thing was a new edge and for that very good reason, i was truly sweating it out in front of the cameras for a true 60 minutes... i felt good about the food me and my team... (mark l, exec chef at lupa, partner in otto and the new chef at il postone next spring, anne b, exec chef at italian wine merchants ex of felidia and beppe.... two of the best cooks in my world) put up and felt we deserved to win the one on one as well as the two on two.... unfortunately, the judges felt otherwise on the 2 on 2 ... crushed we were, trounced, pelted and pulped reviewing the show it seems hard to believe but.. anyway..... sakai is a zen master, a mensch, a rock star truly a joy and a pleasure to work next to a true hero and a brilliant cook/chef his food was a revelation in subtle simplicity, the good fight for true french cooking is his... i think the judges american palettes worked against him everything he touched that i tasted was integrated and balanced as well as provocative and textural.... all in all the show was great fun and i believe we are skedded for more in the fall

the problem with most celebrity chef food products is that they are rarely touched or even sniffed by the chef in question, they are more likely licensed by said chef and made, albeit with best intentions, millions of miles from the chefs residence, in a sub lunar holding planet just off uranus in a factory called maammaas meatballs inc....there, the cheerleaders rave about the salsa, or the sugo or the spice blend and no one notices when it slips off the shit meter and becomes durkee's replacement for the mccormick sludge from the workshop floor.... i have done a couple of good things with trader joes in the heat and serve spaghetti sauce department, but am still exploring the potential to temper greed with high quality and score the villa in monte carlo mb