Celebrity chef Batali gives up restaurants
Divestment follows series of sex assault allegations against restaurateur
The 20-year partnership between celebrity chef Mario Batali and the Bastianich family of restaurateurs was formally dissolved on Wednesday, more than a year after several women accused Batali of sexual harassment and assault.
Batali “will no longer profit from the restaurants in any way, shape or form,” said Tanya Bastianich Manuali, who will head day-to-day operations at a new company, as yet unnamed, created to replace the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group.
The new company will operate the group’s remaining 16 restaurants under a new management and financial structure. Bastianich Manuali and her brother, Joe Bastianich, have bought Batali’s shares in all the restaurants. They would not discuss the terms of the buyout.
Batali is also selling his shares in Eataly, the fast-growing global chain of luxury Italian supermarkets. “Eataly is in the process of acquiring Mr. Batali’s minority interest in Eataly USA,” said Chris Giglio, a spokesman for that company.
An Eataly supermarket is scheduled to open this year in Toronto at the Manulife Centre at Bay St. and Bloor Ave. W.
Several famous chefs and restaurateurs have recently been accused of sexual harassment, but Batali is the first to surrender all his restaurants.
At its peak, Batali & Bastianich encompassed dozens of restaurants and food businesses in the United States, Italy, Singapore and Hong Kong. Splashy restaurants like Babbo and Del Posto made celebrities of Batali and his primary partner, Bastianich. Two other partners added lustre to the operation: respected California chef Nancy Silverton and Lidia Bastianich, Bastianich’s mother, the chef and owner of Felidia, in Manhattan, and a beloved authority on Italian cuisine.
Silverton and Lidia Bastianich will be partners in the new company, along with Joe Bastianich and Bastianich Manuali. The four will work together on corporate strategy, culture, talent development and oversight across the businesses.
In December 2017, news accounts of Batali’s history of sexual aggression touched off po- lice investigations, torpedoed his career and cast a shadow over all the restaurants he was involved in. Reservations at Del Posto, the group’s luxurious Manhattan flagship, shrank as expense-account approvers shied away from Batali’s compromised reputation.
Six of the group’s restaurants, in Las Vegas and East Asia, closed soon afterward, when the Sands casino group ended its contracts with Batali & Bastianich. Others shuttered as the process of dismantling the partnership dragged on. The group’s newest restaurant, the ambitious and expensive La Sirena, in Manhattan, closed in December.
Since the scandal began, Joe Bastianich has insisted that he was unaware of Batali’s sexual aggressions against women. In a statement on Tuesday, he said: “While I never saw or heard of Mario groping an employee, I heard him say inappropriate things to our employees. Though I criticized him for it from time to time, I should have done more. I neglected my responsibilities as I turned my attention away from the restaurants. People were hurt, and for this I am deeply sorry.”
But three former employees of the restaurant group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Joe Bastianich’s power in the restaurant business, said that they believed it was not possible that Joe Bastianich remained ignorant of serious misbehaviour by Batali. Throughout the industry, they and others have said, both men were known for fostering a sexist, raucous culture that ignored misconduct by male employees and demeaned female workers. (Before the #MeToo movement, however, that kind of atmosphere was hardly unique.)
Batali issued a statement on Wednesday morning: “I have reached an agreement with Joe and no longer have any stake in the restaurants we built together. I wish him the best of luck in the future.” He declined requests for further comment.