Mario Batali, Joseph Bastianich To Pay $600,000 In Sexual Harassment Claims Settlement

[BeckyDem]

( My God they are disgusting and got off easy. )

BY JEN CHUNG
JULY 23, 2021 11:29 A.M

Disgraced celebrity chef Mario Batali and his former business partner Joseph Bastianich will pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees in a settlement announced by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In 2017, the men were accused of fostering a hostile workplace at their storied restaurants, including Babbo, Lupa, and Del Posto. Former female employees came forward to say that Batali groped and sexually assaulted them, and he would often invite them to fellow restaurateur Ken Friedman's The Spotted Pig's third floor, which some nicknamed "the rape room." Batali stepped away from B&B Hospitality, the company he founded with Bastianich, in 2019. B&B later renamed itself Pasta Resources.



Employees also accused Batali and Bastianich of retaliating against them, as well as discriminating against them because they were women. From the AG's press release:

Between 2016 to 2019, multiple employees witnessed or personally experienced unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching, and sexually explicit comments from managers and coworkers, and several female employees were forcibly groped, hugged, and/or kissed by male colleagues. Batali himself sexually harassed a female server by making explicit comments to her and grabbing her hand while she was serving him and pulling it towards his crotch. On another occasion, Batali showed a male server at Lupa an unwelcome pornographic video.

Female employees specifically made complaints that chefs and managers blatantly favored male employees and made misogynistic comments degrading women in the workplace. In several instances, a manager made comments about the female employees’ appearance, including observations about their height and weight. They were told to wear makeup and even to get breast implants. The manager also referred to several female employees in front of dining guests as “little girl” and “sensitive,” and said that “females should not work in the mezzanine,” which was a main part of the restaurant.

https://gothamist.com/food/mario-batali-joseph-bastianich-pay-600000-sexual-harassment-claims-settlement

[RANDYWILDMAN]

1. Men in power abusing it, paying up, good start

We also need to make it up to all the women they ruined in the process.

These guys ,just like Harvey Weinstein ruined a lot of careers before they were caught.

[marble falls]

2. Sounds like they got off cheap.

[BeckyDem]

3. Yep, they did. Free men too.

In 2012, the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, Batali's company with partner Joe Bastianich, reported annual revenues of $250 million. That year, the first branch of Eataly that opened in New York City in 2010 had already paid back its investors and was on track to do $85 million in annual revenue.

Batali himself has a made a lot of money, too—about $25 million, according to celebritynetworth.com.


https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a14407882/mario-batali-net-worth/

[marble falls]

4. Waited, including as a second job, for over fourty years. I saw very little of the crap I hear ...

... about. I've worked big places, 3,4 and 5 stars. It just makes me angry that Batali would exploit his underpaid commis and waitresses.

[BeckyDem]

5. +1.

It is shameful but it comes down to how a percentage of men believe they are entitled to act this way. They created this bubble too, within the restaurants' environment. That jumped off the page to me while reading the accounts. Just horrendous b/c these women probably thought they would be working with a great team of professionals.