News about Mario Batali

Mario Batali, a veteran television chef, returned to the small screen over the weekend, hosting a cooking webinar titled Molto a Casa from his new home in rural Michigan. Batali, 67, has been mostly absent from mainstream media since being first accused of sexual assault in 2017, which he has persistently denied and never been prosecuted for. The Seattle native used some of his screen time to rail against his former home, the Big Apple. Subscriptions are included in the entire session.

In a recent documentary, a woman who worked with A-list chef Mario Batali in her 20s in New York has given an extensive account of the suspected sexual assault he perpetrated against her. Eva DeVirgilis, now 43, was an employee at Batali's flagship Greenwich Village restaurant Babbo in 2005, when the celebrity chef invited her to a late night gathering at the Spotted Pig, another New York hotspot where Batali was an investor. DeVirgilis was assaulted while unconscious and awakened the next morning in the restaurant. A rape kit test was conducted, but DeVirgilis refused to hand it over to cops fearing a backlash as she sought to establish her career. In the forthcoming Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef, a documentary that premieres on Discovery+ on Thursday, DeVirgilis will tell the world.