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After Chef’s Hitler Remark, Bankers Change Lunch Plans (Mario Batali)
New York Timed ^ | November 9, 2011 | JAMES BARRON

Posted on 11/09/2011 7:42:28 PM PST by nickcarraway

Del Posto and Babbo have the same celebrity chef as an owner, reputations for impossible-to-get reservations, and customers who can afford, say, Del Posto’s seven-course “menu tradizionale” at $145 a person. It is not unreasonable to imagine that a good number of those customers make a living on Wall Street.

So their reaction after word spread on Wednesday that Mario Batali had mentioned them in the same breath as Stalin and Hitler was to let their hefty wallets do the talking and threaten to cancel their hard-won reservations.

Some complained on Twitter, some on the Bloomberg terminals they use to follow the markets. A food Web site, Eater, said one investment bank had even circulated a memo saying it would not reimburse receipts from Babbo or the other restaurants in Mr. Batali’s group.

“The irony is that he has made millions of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth,” said a senior executive at a large investment bank who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The executive, who said he had eaten often at Babbo and Del Posto, said he would not go back to any restaurant that Mr. Batali was involved with.

Mr. Batali made the remarks at a Time magazine event on Tuesday promoting its “Person of the Year” issue, which will appear next month. Time assembled a panel of celebrities to talk about who should be chosen Person of the Year and continue a tradition dating to 1927.

There, in comfortable tan chairs, were personalities like Brian Williams, the NBC News anchor; the law professor Anita Hill, who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment 20 years ago; and Jesse Eisenberg, the actor who played the Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg in the film “The Social Network.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: hitler; mariobatali; newyork; newyorkciity; occupywallstreet; restaurants; wallstreet
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1 posted on 11/09/2011 7:42:37 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Good! Hope he goes out of business. I wonder why he didn’t mention Mussolini? Maybe he’s related to him.


2 posted on 11/09/2011 7:55:59 PM PST by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: nickcarraway

Batali is a punk. He’s grown with success in a capitalist enviroment and he trashes the system. Go to Europe shmuck.


3 posted on 11/09/2011 7:58:17 PM PST by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: mass55th
Maybe he’s related to him.

That would be a laugh.

4 posted on 11/09/2011 7:58:48 PM PST by null and void (MSGT Dean Hopkins USMC (ret) WWII-Korea-Vietnam 11/9/1925-10/22/2011 My hero, my Dad)
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To: nickcarraway

Fat sweathog commie chef.


5 posted on 11/09/2011 8:00:06 PM PST by LibLieSlayer ("Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness." Ronaldo Magnus)
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To: nickcarraway

I never liked that guy but I couldn’t quite pin it down.
Well a few light bulbs just went on!


6 posted on 11/09/2011 8:00:25 PM PST by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: nickcarraway

Good luck selling $150 prix-fixe entrees to “the 99%”, gneius.


7 posted on 11/09/2011 8:06:43 PM PST by denydenydeny (The moment you step into a world of facts, you step into a world of limits. --Chesterton)
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To: nickcarraway
[“The way the bankers have toppled the way that money is distributed, and taken most of it into their own hands,” Mr. Batali said, “is as good as Stalin or Hitler, the evil guys” whom Time named Man of the Year long ago, Stalin in 1942, Hitler in 1938.]

Unlike Wall Street inhabitants, neither Hitler nor Stalin would pay the exorbitant prices for Mario Batali’s dishes. This ingrate is about to learn who has been buttering his bread.

8 posted on 11/09/2011 8:08:17 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: nickcarraway

Idiot should SHUT UP and COOK...


9 posted on 11/09/2011 8:10:57 PM PST by goodnesswins (My Kid/Grandkids are NOT your ATM, liberals! (Sarah Palin))
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To: nickcarraway

He can always load that overpriced crap on a cart and hawk it to the geniuses occupying the park!!!


10 posted on 11/09/2011 8:11:26 PM PST by ontap
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To: nickcarraway
"The way the bankers have toppled the way that money is distributed, and taken most of it into their own hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler, the evil guys..."

I agree with him to some extent. If you want to talk about people like Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon, yes, they gamed the system badly. They got in bed with government, and their firms receive the newly minted, inflation-free money from the Federal Reserve. Goldman gets to issue government bonds and derives huge profits by indebting this nation. Of course the Democrats politically own these banks Super Mario decries, but I doubt he knows that.

Mario Batali has quite a reputation. He is an extreme liberal from a family of means. He despised George W. with a passion (and with expletives). He also tends to shoot off his mouth and made quite an ass of himself (do a search for "king juan carlos mario batali"). I've heard some really nasty allegations of his behavior towards the women from an attendant when he was at the at the affair with King Juan Carlos, but I won't repeat those as they are hearsay. I still find him to be likable for certain reasons. I hate to be Polyanna, but he's not all bad.

11 posted on 11/09/2011 8:15:18 PM PST by ElectronVolt
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To: nickcarraway

threatened to cancel??

Boycott them like the Men’s Warehouse. How many suits and $145 dinners do you suppose the OWS will be buying?


12 posted on 11/09/2011 8:21:23 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: nickcarraway

I can get better food at my local Greek and Italian restaurants.

Don’t need to give a greedy pig my money.


13 posted on 11/09/2011 8:25:58 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: nickcarraway

Just flip the burgers, cookie. I’d call the Health Department on him.


14 posted on 11/09/2011 8:47:53 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: nickcarraway

If I recall correctly, Batali had his staff wearing anti-”W” buttons during either the 2000 or 2004 campaigns.


15 posted on 11/09/2011 9:06:23 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: ElectronVolt
I think the big bankers and the Ceo's have a lot of crooks among them.....but what I hate the most is the elite uppity limosine liberals who have made millions off the little people acting like they don't haven't done it....

arrogant pigs....

16 posted on 11/09/2011 9:26:14 PM PST by cherry
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To: nickcarraway

I wonder if these remarks will get him booted from “The Chew” TV show?


17 posted on 11/09/2011 9:36:01 PM PST by Wasichu
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks nickcarraway.
Mario Batali had mentioned them in the same breath as Stalin and Hitler... "The irony is that he has made millions of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth," said a senior executive at a large investment bank who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The executive, who said he had eaten often at Babbo and Del Posto, said he would not go back to any restaurant that Mr. Batali was involved with.

18 posted on 11/09/2011 9:42:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: nickcarraway

Orange shoes

19 posted on 11/09/2011 9:43:24 PM PST by kcvl
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To: nickcarraway

Mario Batali Apologizes for Comments Comparing Bankers to Hitler, Stalin

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/mario-batali-apologizes-for-comments-comparing-bankers-to-hitler-stalin.html


20 posted on 11/09/2011 9:44:52 PM PST by kcvl
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