| Mario Batali was born in Yakima, WA and raised in | | | | in 1998 he put on chef uniforms and opened Babbo, |
| Seattle, in an Italian-French Canadian family which | | | | which immediately won the James Beard Foundation's |
| loved cooking. He began his love affair with cookery | | | | Best New Restaurant Award, and was given three |
| as a child, when he collected wild blackberries in his | | | | stars by the New York Times (it won the New York |
| uniform pants and helped his grandmother make jams | | | | Times' three stars again six years later). After Babbo's |
| and pies with them. His family moved to Spain in 1975, | | | | success, Mario opened another nine restaurants in |
| and Mario spent his high school years studying in Spain, | | | | New York, and also restaurants in Los Angeles and |
| and then in 1978 returned to the U.S. and attended | | | | Las Vegas. In 1999 Mario was named "Man of the |
| Rutgers University. He had a double major of | | | | Year" in GQ's chef's category; in 2002 he won the |
| economics and Spanish theater, and graduated in 1982. | | | | James Beard Foundation's "Best Chef in New York |
| While in college Mario began working as a dishwasher | | | | City" award; and in 2008 its "Best Restaurateur" |
| in New Brunswick, NJ's Stuff Yer Face restaurant, but | | | | award. |
| he soon graduated to pizza maker and chef. His first | | | | Together with Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck, Mario |
| introduction to culinary training was at London's Le | | | | was one of the Food Network's Iron Chefs in their |
| Cordon Bleu, but he left almost immediately because | | | | 2004 Battle of the Masters in chef pants with original |
| he wanted more hands-on experience. He began an | | | | Japanese Iron Chefs Morimoto and Sakai, which |
| apprenticeship with Marco Pierre White at Six Bells | | | | evolved into a weekly series in 2005. Mario's other |
| public house in London's Chelsea. He also worked in | | | | shows for Food Network include Molto Mario, |
| Paris' Tour d'Argent, Provence's Moulin de Mougins, | | | | Mediterranean Mario, Mario Eats Italy, Ciao America, |
| and London's Waterside Inn. In 1985 he became sous | | | | and Mario Full Boil. In 2007 Mario left the Food Network |
| chef at San Francisco's Four Seasons Clift, and later | | | | for PBS, where he was featured in a thirteen-episode |
| chef de cuisine at Santa Barbara's La Marina. He | | | | series about Spanish cuisine, Spain ...on the Road |
| resigned his job in 1989 and moved to the tiny village | | | | Again. Mario is negotiating with the Travel Channel for |
| of Borgo Capanne in Northern Italy for three years in | | | | a series about Italian cuisine. In 2009 Mario announced |
| order to apprentice at La Volta, where he mastered | | | | the inauguration of the Mario Batali Foundation, whose |
| traditional Italian cookery, before returning to his native | | | | purpose is to educate, encourage, and empower |
| United States, anxious to launch a restaurant of his | | | | children by raising funds for research in children's |
| own. | | | | diseases, for children's literacy and hunger relief. |
| After working at a few of New York City's hot spots, | | | | |