Mario Batali's Empire In The Wake Of Mario Batali

When the allegations of Mario Batali’s sexual misconduct came to light last December, the fallout was immediate. By the time the first story was published— including accusations that ranged from unwanted propositions and forcible touching to the kissing and groping, caught on security videotape, of a woman who appeared to be unconscious—the celebrity chef had agreed to remove himself from the operations of his two dozen–plus restaurants.

- Eric Konigsberg

Then, in May, the New York Times found that the New York Police Department had launched an investigation into a claim from a woman who said Batali had drugged and raped her in 2004 at Babbo, one of his restaurants. The same month, 60 Minutes interviewed a woman who said Batali had sexually assaulted her in 2005 while she was passed out in a VIP room at the Spotted Pig, a restaurant where he is not a chef but an investor. The third-story space was apparently known to employees and people in the industry as the “rape room.” In August, the Times reported that the New York State Attorney General’s office had issued a subpoena for records related to Batali and the restaurant’s owner, Ken Friedman, including video footage of Batali with female employees in the room.

For Joe Bastianich, the business partner with whom Batali had founded and built their restaurant empire over the course of 20 years, the full effect of Batali’s transgressions was only beginning. “On the day in December that it broke, I had to walk into these restaurants and talk about these allegations,” Bastianich said. Their properties included Esca, Del Posto, Lupa, and Otto in New York, along with outposts nationwide and abroad. “To see people who were crying—I became emotional at some of these meetings,” Bastianich added. “It was real. Some of them felt angry. Some felt betrayed by Mario. To me, it was about bringing a bit of spirituality to the situation and immediately moving to create a new corporate culture.”