American chef (1960- )
There are all kinds of myths going on in the Italian culture, and the way they celebrate is through their food. It's the tradition of the table where the Italians celebrate most of their triumphs and successes.
MARIO BATALI
Humanities, 2004
It used to be that you would go out to the theater and get a bite or you would go to the game and get a bite or go to the concert and get a bite. At this point in our society, the bite is often the main event. So it has to be more than turkey and gravy and potatoes. The lighting and the buzz and everything in addition to the food have an impact on what the customer feels. In that way, it's very much in the theatrical sense.
MARIO BATALI
"The Traditions of the Table"
There are two activities in life in which we can lovingly and carefully put something inside of someone we love. Cooking is the one we can do three times a day for the rest of our lives, without pills.
MARIO BATALI
"A Rallying Cry", The Eat Like a Man Guide to Feeding a Crowd
If you're smart, then your dreams evolve, too.
MARIO BATALI
Esquire, Jun. 2004
When I was a child, our whole family cooked. All my cousins cooked. All my aunts and uncles cooked. It was part of our heritage. We would load up the yellow Cutlass Supreme station wagon and pick blackberries during blackberry season or spring onions during spring onion season. For us, food was part of the fabric of our day.
MARIO BATALI
"The Traditions of the Table"
My last meal? The food would be much less significant than the company.
MARIO BATALI
Esquire, June 2004
As far away as you can get from the process of mechanisms and machinery, the more likely your food's going to taste good. And that--that is probably the largest thing I can hand to anybody is let your hands touch it.
MARIO BATALI
"Making a Meal with Mario Batali", NPR, October 15, 2005
I think that the most important part of Italian cooking is done before you get in the kitchen. And that's in the purchasing of the ingredients.
MARIO BATALI
"Making a Meal with Mario Batali", NPR, October 15, 2005
My ten year old son, at this point, can go into the kitchen and, without a recipe, make cookie dough of some kind. It's not the same every time, but he just knows what it looks like, which is a lot earlier than I ever was involved. I mean, I could make, out of a package brownies and cakes, but not just wing it together. He might be a visionary.
MARIO BATALI
Gothamist interview
Food is much better off the hand than the fork.
MARIO BATALI
Esquire, June 2004
When you taste things in the right order, sometimes they taste so much different than if you taste them out of order. Not that there's a right order, like by rule, but just like in a thoughtful way that makes sense.
MARIO BATALI
"Making a Meal with Mario Batali", NPR, October 15, 2005
Once you become an elaborate and well-developed culture, anything from Rome or the Etruscans, for that matter, the food starts to become a representation of what the culture is. When the food can transcend being just fuel, that's when you start to see these different permutations.
MARIO BATALI
"The Traditions of the Table"
I go to the shoe fair, I'm nobody. In Little Italy, I'm Elvis.
MARIO BATALI
"Making a Meal with Mario Batali", NPR, October 15, 2005
My mom made something that I always requested for my birthday called mock chicken legs. She would take ground veal and ground pork and mix it up with a bunch of spices, and then take a Popsicle stick and put it inside a little ball of the meat. Then you bake them. It was like a veal-and-pork hamburger rolled in ground-up Rice Krispies. It was delightful.
MARIO BATALI
Time Magazine, Sep. 25, 2008