Mario Batali Surrenders All Restaurants Following Sexual Assault Allegations

From www.nydailynews.com By GINA SALAMONE

He's cooked.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali cut ties with all his restaurants Wednesday following sexual assault allegations that came to a boiling point just over a year ago.

The Bastianich family, his longtime partners at Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, bought out his stake in their eateries, according to an e-mail that went out to staff Wednesday.

The memo obtained by the Daily News came from Queens-born restaurateurs Tanya Bastianich Manuali and Joe Bastianich, the children of famed chef Lidia Bastianich.

With Batali no longer profiting from the restaurants, Bastianich Manuali has stepped in to oversee day-to-day operations. She's already begun working with staff members in the past few weeks, according to the memo.

Restaurants under the B & B umbrella include the Michelin-starred spots, Babbo, a two-decades old Greenwich Village enoteca, and Del Posto, a refined Italian restaurant in the Meatpacking District.

"One of our guiding principles going forward is that we're going to have the dog wag the tail — the restaurants and the people working in them deserve the attention," a spokesman for Tanya and Joe told the Daily News. "Each restaurant will have its own identity — those are the names to remember."

In January, the NYPD closed two sexual misconduct investigations involving the 58-year-old Batali without filing charges. "The NYPD takes sex crimes and sexual assault very seriously and declines comment on the specifics of any particular investigation," a police spokesman said at the time.

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The probe was sparked after a "60 Minutes" report last May that detailed accusations of Batali groping women in a VIP room at "The Spotted Pig" restaurant in Greenwich Village.

In December of 2017, foodie site Eater published a story in which four women claimed he groped them.

Before the split from the restaurants he co-owned, the allegations had already cost the orange Crocs-wearing chef his job as a co-host of ABC's cooking talking show "The Chew" in 2017.

"Our mission remains the same," Tanya and Joe added in their staff memo, "delivering outstanding dining experiences and providing a culture that empowers each and every one of you to grow and develop in your career."