I spoke to Mario Batali, celebrity chef and author of the new book Mario Batali--Big American Cookbook: 250 Favorite Recipes from Across the USA, about the food trends he's paying attention to, the struggles he had as he grew his restaurant empire, why chefs should master their craft before trying to become famous, how he decides where to open future restaurants and his best advice to you.
Batali counts 26 restaurants, 10 cookbooks, numerous television shows, and three Eataly marketplaces among his ever-expanding empire of Deliciousness. His cookbooks include the James Beard Award winning Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes (2005) and his most recent cookbook, America--Farm to Table. Batali appears daily on ABC's The Chew, a daytime talk show on ABC that celebrates and explores life through food. He and his co-hosts won their first Emmy as Best Talk Show Hosts this year.
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Dan Schawbel: What are the most common food trends you're seeing in America or abroad?
Mario Batali: All I can say is thank goodness pop-ups are no longer as popular. Those drove me crazy. Right now I’m seeing fast, casual, eco-friendly chains as an American trend and I have no problem with that. My friend Dana Cowin said it best, that it’s more about the food trends we miss that will be huge in ten years than it is the ones happening right now.
Schawbel: How have you worked your way up in the restaurant/food business and what were your biggest struggles?
Batali: I’m lucky enough to have had more good times than bad in forging my career, but off the top of my head, working under my culinary hero Marco Pierre White and having hot pans thrown at my face was a low point, a struggle. Also putting everything I had into my first restaurant, Po, on Corneila Street in NYC and then selling it to my partner when we split ways. That was really a struggle, but opened a window for so much more from the knowledge and perseverance I learned from those experiences.
Schawbel: We are living in the age of the celebrity chef and you are one of them. What impact has the media, from this book to TV, had on your career and what is your goal with the platform that has developed from it?
Batali: At the end of the day, I’m just a cook and if every platform I’ve been fortunate to have come my way was taken away from me, I’d still be happy prepping delicious food behind the line. I find it disconcerting when I meet young chefs full of talent, but who have an idea of wanting to make it as that celebrity TV chef without putting the blood, sweat and tears behind the true definition of being a chef. I’m incredibly proud of each of my cookbooks, and plan to write more of them because I enjoy it. Perhaps I’ll even write an autobiography one of these days. I’ll continue working on The Chew as long as they’ll have me because I truly enjoy getting to speak to America every day and my cohosts have become family. Where I’d like to move the most forward is in the digital space, creating content driven by strong characters rising in the food scene and smart, thought out projects in the digital platform where we all know TV is headed.
Schawbel: As a businessman, how do you select the locations for your restaurant and the type of restaurant you open there?
Batali: I’ve learned a lot in opening Eataly marketplaces in additions to Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group restaurants. It’s all about the population and numbers of a big city, catering to the demographic that you can serve best, and opening a business with a price point that people in that area can afford.
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Schawbel: What are your top three pieces of career advice?
Batali:
1. Be the first one there and the last one out.
2. If you do what you love, then you’ll never work a day in your life.
3. Surround yourself with a team of people that is the only team that matters to you.
