Chef Mario Batali Inducted Today

Dec. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Culinary Hall of Fame, LLC announced today that Chef Mario Batali has been inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.

About Mario Batali:

Mario Batali is an acclaimed chef, restaurateur, award-winning author, and television personality. With his business partner Joe Bastianich, Mario has created a successful restaurant and culinary empire in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Singapore.

Raised in Seattle, Batali studied the golden age of Spanish theater at Rutgers University. Soon after graduating, he took his first bite of culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in London, but he withdrew almost immediately due to a "lack of interest." An apprenticeship with London's legendary chef Marco Pierre White and three years of intense culinary training in the Northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne gave Mario the essential skills and knowledge to return to his native U.S., eager to plant his orange-clogged foot firmly on the behind of the checkered-tablecloth Italian restaurant establishment.

Among his many accolades, Mario was named "Man of the Year" in the chef category by GQ Magazine in 1999. In 2002, he won the James Beard Foundation's "Best Chef: New York City" award, and in 2005 the James Beard Foundation awarded Mario the designation of "Outstanding Chef of the Year." Mario was also a recipient of the 2001 D'Artagnan Cervena "Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America," a prestigious food industry lifetime achievement award.

As of September 2011, Mario stars in "The Chew," a daytime talk show on ABC that celebrates and explores life through food. The Chew airs weekdays at 1PM EST on ABC. Mario has also hosted a number of television shows for The Food Network including Ciao America, Molto Mario and Iron Chef America. In the fall of 2008, Mario starred in a PBS series alongside Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. Spain...On the Road Again followed the foursome's adventures as they traveled and ate their way through Spain. Mario is also a frequent guest on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, MARTHA and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Charlie Rose.

In 2008, Mario founded the Mario Batali Foundation with the mission of feeding, protecting educating and empowering children. To learn more about Mario's mission, visit www.mariobatalifoundation.org.

For more information: www.mariobatali.com/about_biography.cfm

About Culinary Hall of Fame:

Our mission is to present a single, unified Hall of Fame to encompass all things culinary. Our hall of fame includes restaurants, writers of books and magazines, television shows, chefs and food stylists, popular recipes, pioneers and visionaries in the areas from organic farming to going green or fighting obesity. For more information, please refer to our mission statement or contact form at

http://www.culinaryhalloffame.com/about