Being a star

[Sning]

Hello, Mario.

It's so exciting to have you here!

How do you handle being a celebrity chef? I'm sure it has its ups and downs, and I'm wondering if it's as spectacular as it seems to be. You have a world famous restaurant, TV shows, you're a star on Iron Chef, etc. How do you handle it all?

Michele

[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