Word: batali
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...relatively inexpensive--its six-course tasting menu was $29--and Batali was soon feeding downtown artists, actors and, crucially, reporters. He became the most charismatic of the young New York City chefs--fun, funny, a little crude. There was something brash about his willingness to serve a just-picked strawberry drizzled with sweet balsamic vinegar rather than do something more complex and chef-ish like extruding a berry-vinegar solution into a foam. Great California chefs like Jeremiah Tower (for whom Batali briefly worked) and Alice Waters launched the American culinary revolution in the 1970s by trumpeting fresh ingredients above...
...Batali turned out to be an incredibly productive TV cook, able to shoot as many as eight back-to-back episodes of Molto Mario. "As soon as the camera was off, I'd say [to the crew], 'Nine minutes, m_____f_____s!'" says Batali. "They hated me initially, but they loved me eventually." Because of his speed, Batali was able to deliver 517 episodes of the show in just six seasons of shooting. (The show went out of production in 2003, but it still airs in reruns...
...simultaneously opening new restaurants: after Pò (which he no longer co-owns) came seven others--plus a bar and a wine shop--that have all succeeded, with one exception. Batali routinely mocks the fustian techniques of French cooking, so it seemed quite a leap last year for him and Bastianich to launch Bistro du Vent, a French restaurant on 42nd Street. The food isn't quite French and isn't quite Batali. Struggling for an identity, Bistro du Vent is the first Batali-Bastianich venture where you can easily get a seat. Both men seem to sigh heavily whenever...
Their six other restaurants are flourishing; Bastianich estimates that they collectively serve 2,000 people a night. Last year the James Beard Foundation named Batali its Outstanding Chef--the top award a U.S. cook can win. This year the foundation has nominated Molto Italiano, Batali's 2005 book, as best international cookbook and Del Posto as best new restaurant. The winners will be announced at a Manhattan gala on May 8, a few days after Batali returns from cooking chicken thighs and tortilla casserole for scores of NASCAR drivers, crewmen, and their families at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega...
...When Batali delivered the commencement address last year at Rutgers, he urged the graduates to "get a brand," which he defined as "your own truth, expressed consistently." "For better or worse, I've got a brand," he said in the speech. "The orange clogs, the ponytail, the attitude, my seeming fluency in Italian--it's instantly recognizable. But what matters to me is, it's not fake." O.K., but the challenge he now faces is not to misjudge how far you can stretch your brand without cheapening it. In the '90s, because of his Manhattan restaurants, Batali vaulted into...