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  • >>Barry Salzman: Good afternoon. For those of you I've not met before, I'm Barry Salzman

  • and I have to say I've not filled TechTalk like this in the year I've been at Google.

  • So, note to self, Mario, you are invited to every one of our media platforms or hands

  • meetings from here on forward. So, I first met Mario in 2001 and at the time, a reservation

  • at Babbo was the toughest reservation to get in New York City. At the time I think he had

  • three restaurants-- is that right?-- and had published two books. Ten years later, Babbo

  • is still the toughest ticket in town, which in and of itself is no small feat in a city

  • known for fickle foodies, but in addition, Mario has, I think, 15 restaurants today.

  • I'm getting the thumbs up. Fifteen restaurants today, published eight books, television shows,

  • vineyard, charitable foundation and the latest addition to-- I think the latest addition,

  • unless I'm out of date-- to the Mario Batali empire has been the Android App, and that's

  • what he's here to talk about today. As a tribute to Mario, I think everybody knows that all

  • chefs at Hemispheres are doing a set of Mario Batali inspired dishes for lunch. So, after

  • this, be sure to head up there and join us for lunch. I just wanna read you something

  • from Mario's official bio. And it says," At the root of Mario's success is his passion

  • and respect for all of the great tastes and traditions of Italian cooking, combined with

  • an insatiable desire to experience and experiment. This magical combination of passion, education,

  • and chutzpah is on display every night at his extremely popular restaurants, and evident

  • in his books and TV shows."

  • Well, last night I watched Mario's last appearance at Google on YouTube and I want to say that

  • Mario, you have broken a Google record. He was on record as being the outside speaker

  • to have used the f word more than anybody else in a 45 minute presentation. So, I'm

  • certain he's not gonna disappoint this time. Mario, I have to say it is f-ing good to have

  • you back.

  • [laughter]

  • Please join me in welcoming Chef Mario Batali.

  • [applause]

  • >>Mario Batali: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm sure you'll be slightly disappointed that

  • with a 12 year old and a 14 year old, I've changed my rating from R to PG.

  • [laughter]

  • So, I only say "fuck" when it's really essential, which sometimes is and sometimes isn't. I'm

  • here today in support of the launch of the Android App that I have. It is, if you've

  • ever watched the old Food Network's show called "Molto Mario", which is on now on the Cooking

  • Channel I think at 4:30 in the morning.

  • [laughter]

  • Maybe it's 4:42 just to challenge you. No, I think it's like 7:30 or 8:00. What it is,

  • is a straight-forward, very direct demonstration of what really good Italian technique, how

  • simple it is, how much it's based on shopping. And, as opposed to a lot of the other Apps,

  • which are virtually cookbooks translated to the page, this I actually walk through each

  • of the dishes, just as if I'm in the kitchen with you. And the idea is to empower you to

  • feel that you can actually watch it. There's a thousand features which we're gonna demo

  • in a few minutes that describe and display how you can use it in the very complicated

  • world of multitasking, how we can use all of the tricks and treatments to make it happen.

  • But what it's really fundamentally about is understanding that people, in addition to

  • wanting to go out to be entertained by food, that what they really wanna do is understand

  • their food, they wanna love their food and they wanna know about their food.

  • Thirty years ago, you became a cook, not a chef, right after you got out of the military

  • and some time before you went to jail.

  • [laughter]

  • And that's because cooking at that time was the lowest common denominator job. Anybody

  • could peel a potato, anybody could start in a kitchen, and effectively work in a diner

  • in any town or in the military-- or in prison--cooking food. Our fascination with food came as a

  • result of our fascination with our health, our understanding of our health, our fascination

  • with the things that give us pleasure. And I must say, I'm quite pleased to say that

  • whereas 30 years ago you might go out to get a bite and then go to the game or go to the

  • opera and then get a bite, or go to a concert or a museum and get something to eat on the

  • way, at this point now amongst many of the people in this room, the bite is actually

  • the central part of our evening or our afternoon. And it's our obsession and our pride and our

  • understanding, as well as our internationalization in our super Suave' Bolla way that we travel

  • around the world and look for things that make us happy, that food has come to the center

  • of the plate, as it were. Subsequent to that, of course, cooks became a little bit more

  • successful. And it's in no short, it's not to short it, but I think that although cooks

  • have enjoyed a certain little bit of fame, eventually the next rock stars aren't gonna

  • be cooks. It's gonna be farmer's [looks to the left and sighs] and fishermen because

  • eventually you'll realize that no matter how much technique there is and how many bams

  • there is or how many squirt bottles there is, or all of those other things, effectively

  • what really is the biggest decision is you're going to make are going to be on what you

  • buy and how you source it and where you get it. So, there's also shopping parts in this

  • app, but I think the real understanding is to make something delicious, you really have

  • to buy something that has a point of view. And it's that kind of slow-food mentality,

  • that kind of searching for biodiversity that is what I really try to represent at this

  • point. I don't know if any of you have heard about this little grocery store I opened up

  • called Eataly on 23rd Street. But if you walk in there there's a, there's a huge component

  • of it is slogans. It's allowing people to understand that it's one little bite of information

  • that will allow you to really get your hands on what a great tangerine is, or why you eat

  • this kind of spaghetti or what kind of oil this is. And it's not really about Italian

  • food. It's about the micro-regional components of Italian food and American ingredients as

  • well, cooked into that world that make it so satisfying to do and so delicious and also

  • nutritious for you. So, this app has all of that rolled into it and what it really is

  • about is empowering you to understand that you can cook just like I can, almost as good

  • as some of the great grandmothers from Italy. And that's the objective behind this is to

  • remove a little bit more of the veil, to look a little bit behind the curtain, but effectively

  • watch and learn how to cook the kind of things that I do, as well as use it just for entertainment.

  • I mean, it's just kind of fun to watch someone who seems to know what they're doing, doing

  • what they do pretty good. And that's why I'm here to do it. Now, I'm gonna introduce Matt

  • Bardin, who's my partner in this, who understands all the technology of it. Basically, I stood

  • up in front of a camera for about five days and we shot 85 videos, which is a good little

  • clip, and we had a good time. So, Matt, why don't you show us about how to use this Android

  • App?

  • >>Matt Bardin: Ok. So, let's, this is the home screen of the app. Actually, maybe we'll

  • start with -- no, that's good. And the main feature, navigationally, is this--

  • >>Mario Batali: Hold on. Lemme interrupt one second. If there is any questions at all time,

  • it can be, we can just go right ahead and say or ask. Bring up what you want. If you

  • see something that looks incongruous or you just wanna say that you love Led Zeppelin,

  • I mean, just bring it on. [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: So the nav-, main navigation features this dial, which is inspired by a

  • stove dial and basically, we give the users a lot of ways to navigate and drill down and

  • look at the recipe. So, you can go by region, by course, by season, things kids love cause

  • Mario's into kids. You can bookmark your favorites.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: "Mario has kids," is what he meant to say. I have kids; I like their

  • friends, we hang out. I'm not so into kids.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: No, I haven't heard that.

  • >>Mario Batali: I'm childish is what he meant to say. I'm childish, that's what he meant

  • to say.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: And he hasn't used the f word once.

  • >>Mario Batali: Not yet, just the fucking introduction.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: So, let's look by category and let's look at the pastas. And I didn't

  • bring my glasses up, so I don't know what this is.

  • >>Mario Batali: That's Bucatini All'amatriciana. One of my personal favorites.

  • >>Matt Bardin: So, if you look at it this way, you can scroll through and just quickly

  • look at all of the steps. You can also hit the--not the back button--whoops. You can

  • also hit the menu button and this custom designed navigation bar lets you see the ingredients,

  • which you can also move to your shopping cart. It lets you see all the videos that would

  • relate to this particular app and I mean--

  • >>Mario Batali: Meaning that as you use an olive oil, if you wanna understand a little

  • bit more about olive oil, right then and there you stop, you put a little bookmark and say,

  • "All right. Lemme find out a little bit more about olive oil, maybe before I use it or

  • before I purchase it." So then you go to that and then if in the middle of that, for some

  • reason, you wanna understand a little bit about how to zest a lemon, you can go right

  • back to that and say, "All right, lemme show you, lemme see how to zest a lemon." And then

  • go back to the recipe and then continue through.

  • >>Matt Bardin: And since you mentioned going back, this tab right here is for bookmarks

  • and as soon as I touch that it's automatically bookmarking this recipe. So, that's how I

  • jump around and can cook several things at once. So now if I wanna cook this recipe,

  • I would turn it this way, in landscape mode and this gives me the steps, either in text

  • form or in images. So, I can scroll through and just look at all the images. A lot of

  • chefs are visual people and they can kinda look at this and get a sense of what they

  • wanna do, but then it also gives you the text and you can toggle back and forth. This one

  • doesn't -- oh, there's a timer. If Mario calls for a timer, we've built them into the app.

  • And--

  • >>Mario Batali: So, say simmer ten minutes, for example. Or, cook pasta--

  • >>Matt Bardin: Whoops! Was there a timer here? There it is.

  • >>Mario Batali: There you go.

  • >>Matt Bardin: So, if I tap this bar, there's my timer and I set it and it's now running

  • behind all of these. It's good, right?

  • >>Mario Batali: Perfect. Nice, huh?

  • [laughter]

  • Bravo, Matt.

  • [clapping]

  • Now, if at that same time, you went to another recipe of a salad that you were making to

  • serve with this and there was a timer on that, you could run concurrent timers going at the

  • same time. It will also warn you when your spaghetti should be coming out of the water,

  • in case you're busy on the phone or liking kids or whatever else you do.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: Which Mario is known to do apparently. So, just in terms of -- Mario

  • mentioned the other kinds of videos there. There are not just recipes in this app. There

  • are also two other kinds of videos. There are kitchen basics, which -- do you wanna

  • talk about that a little, Mario?

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure. I'll describe how and what you should look for when you're buying.

  • Or, what you should be aware of. We'll talk about different kinds of salumi, what salumi

  • is, where you can buy it, what the good ones are, what the ones that aren't so good are.

  • I generally don't talk poorly about anything, but if I find something I find that I don't

  • like, I'll mention a way to avoid it and that's just about going to the right stores.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Umm.

  • >>Mario Batali: Like, if you wanna know about salt, I talk about salt for like, four minutes.

  • [laughter]

  • It's just the kinda guy I am.

  • [laughter]

  • I think the understanding, however, that really, in addition to yourto the ingredients

  • that you use and that you buy specifically for that dish, the most often drive-by victim

  • is the things that you use in your pantry that you haven't evaluated. If you're using

  • a subpar oil or a subpar salt or a subpar kind of tomato or a subpar kind of anchovy,

  • everything that you use that in, or even breadcrumbs. If you use them improperly or you buy them

  • wrong, the building blocks, the fundamental starting, the foundation of your dish is already

  • marred. So, you're not gonna be able to stand much of a chance of making it great. The point

  • is not necessarily following only what I say. It's about developing your own culinary point

  • of view. And the informational text and the informational videos in here, kind of coerce

  • you to become more involved in understanding your pantry, which is really how you're gonna

  • make much better food. And having three different kinds of salt because you know what they're

  • for and using their different levels of salinity and their texture, will affect the final composition

  • of the dishes as well as the pleasure it's going to give to your friends and yourself

  • and understanding those details, is what making really good food is all about and it's not

  • complicated, especially when someone describes it to you. Maybe reading it, it's not so obvious,

  • but when you're sitting there looking at it and I'm pointing out the things and what to

  • look for, that empowers you to become a better cook. I hope.

  • >>Matt Bardin: So, let's just go back to, let's go back to that recipe and just show

  • you the video--

  • >>Mario Batali: Three -- two minutes and 23 seconds, let's get your sauce going, Matt.

  • [chuckles]

  • >>Matt Bardin: Oops. Ok. Let's turn it back this way and now you can watch the video.

  • You can watch the video. There we go. Speak now--

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: It wants you to speak now.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Ok.

  • >>Mario Batali: Don't talk. Shhh!

  • >>Matt Bardin: What was that? I don't know what that's doing. Here we go.

  • [pause]

  • [beep]

  • Can you guys hear this?

  • [video clip playing]

  • Anyway, that's the video.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Audience Member #1: Mario, what is that?.

  • >>Mario Batali: Bucatini all'amatriciania; that means bucatini in the style of the women

  • from Amatricia. It's spaghetti with a hole. What I have here is guanchiale. If you couldn't

  • find some guanchiale--

  • [laughter]

  • you would go buy some pancetta or some great American bacon. I just give it a little chop

  • right here with one of these fancy knives.

  • [laughter]

  • I point to my name on my sweatshirt. And then I show you that even with the hands that used

  • to be the Jimmy Dean pure pork sausage hand models, you can actually still make good food.

  • [laughter]

  • The beauty of this is using these cameras, we use these Canon 5 cameras that are so beautiful

  • that you get in there and you can really get a good sense of it. I always use extra virgin

  • olive oil.

  • [laughter]

  • And blah, blah, blah. And it goes on and it's just like a segment from one of the old shows

  • that I used to do, that I'm going to be doing again, where I fundamentally show people how

  • to do it step-by-step, watching it there. I'm really in the kitchen with you which it

  • what makes it fun and it also makes it something that you can really use. It's almost as good

  • as a Kid Rock video as far as I'm concerned.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: All right.

  • >>Mario Batali: Any other details?

  • >>Matt Bardin: Uh, I think that's a good start.

  • >>Mario Batali: Good. All right. Barry, why don't you come up? Let's talk a little bit.

  • Matt'll keep going through that and show us other details.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Here's the shopping list.

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, the shopping list is really cool because what will happen by the

  • end of next Spring, is you can create a shopping list and then you can push a button and it

  • will go to Eataly and they will send it to you. So, you're--

  • [clapping]

  • sitting around pretending you're working, "Yeah I'm calling someone really important"

  • and you're basically shopping for tonight's meal. Eataly will deliver that to your house

  • before you get home. That's technology working for us, my friends.

  • [audience chatter]

  • [clapping]

  • [bell ringing]

  • >>Mario Batali: The timer just went off.

  • >>Matt Bardin: There's the timer going off. Take the pasta out.

  • >>Mario Batali: Take the pasta out of the pan.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Barry Salzman: I would love to sit next to you, but I have to stand, since [ ].

  • >>Mario Batali: All right, no problem.

  • >>Audience Member #1: We can get them on our computer, can't we?

  • >>Mario Batali: On your computer. Well, I know that it, I know they can get it on one

  • of your competitors smaller format programs.

  • [laughter]

  • I've seen that one. Have you guys got a gPad, yet?

  • [laughter]

  • I'll bet it's coming, though and it was immediately beyond that.

  • >>Audience Member #1: Ok, thank you.

  • >>Barry Salzman: So, I'm not gonna sit and have the kind of conversation I would like

  • for I'm not micced, so I'm gonna stand at the podium. But I wanted to maybe kick it

  • off with sort of a broader question and then we'll come back to the app, Android specifically.

  • But Mario, the broader question is one that you and I were talking a little about yesterday

  • and if I look at the arc of your career, to the ten years, the last ten years and the

  • incredible increase that you've had over the last ten years, it's paralleled very much

  • a broader interest in food, right? It's the interest in food, the farm-to-table movement,

  • nutrition, a lot of these, the making of chefs as celebrity. This has really been a phenomenon

  • that has increased exponentially over the last ten years. Why? What do you think has

  • driven that change in how we think about food?

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, I think food became a significant part of people understanding

  • that not only should they exercise, but they should eat well. I think that information

  • became much more diffuse with the rise of the Food Network and then subsequently with

  • the rise of social media and technology. I think that it's now very much part of the

  • game to share information very quickly as it comes out, as you hear about something.

  • And the way that we do it now, it used to be that we wrote letters and then we used

  • the phone and then we used the handheld phone and now we can virtually send any piece of

  • media, any long short document, any piece of video from cell phone to cell phone, from

  • handheld to handheld, in seconds. So, the information gets out. It's much more widely

  • read. It's much more widely appreciated and the sophistication of the people that are

  • reading what used to be a Betty Crocker recipe are now much more fascinated in the idea of

  • not only regional Italian cooking, but they understand the difference between the cooking

  • of Puglia and the cooking of a town in Puglia called Bari. And then when you wanna talk

  • about what really makes Bari interesting, is the kind of fish that they use there or

  • the kind of sweet peppers they use in their fish stew and suddenly there's a whole level

  • of sophistication that travel around and as we will all realize very quickly in the next

  • ten years, when all content will become free, then we're gonna really see how that kind

  • of information goes out. And it's gonna be much more tied to how you create the relationships

  • between the content provider and the content user that's going to make the really big difference.

  • And the advertisers and the book companies and, sadly, the record companies have missed

  • the entire boat, are all starting to really pay attention to how this information's getting

  • out. And that's, that's the real next ten year generation ideology. It's how we're going

  • to monetize something, but how also we're gonna take credit for our own ideas in a world

  • where it's shared so quickly that it's everyone's idea at the same time. Which is good, this

  • is good. Don't get me wrong. It's not a, not a bad thing.

  • >>Barry Salzman: This is, in the meantime, anyone who has questions from the audience

  • if you wanna make your way to the mics; it looks like we've got another part of the demo.

  • But feel free to, to make your way to the mics. Just as a follow-up to that, Mario.

  • So, the Internet being a big catalyst of this trend, or this phenomenon, because of access

  • to information. What it also seems that it's done is create the opportunity for individuals

  • to become celebrities and to create brand around themselves. Prior to the digital media

  • momentum, the real brands were those that were owned by very large companies that had

  • the resource to get the exposure and the, and the publicity. How do you relate your

  • success in building the Mario Batali brand to digital media? Which tools have been more

  • powerful for you? Where do you feel like you've had better traction and what has been not

  • as effective as you might have expected?

  • >>Mario Batali: That's a good question. I would say that being part-- just being, just

  • being present in the revolution helps a lot. I certainly wasn't the first person on, on

  • YouTube, but a lot of the things that I do are now well represented. And the beginning

  • of that was letting people who might not have ever watched your show, or ever cared about

  • Food Network or ever cared about Italian food; suddenly, there's a compelling reason to take

  • a look at one little bite of it. And that introductory level is what causes people to

  • take it viral, if you would like to say that. And the idea of being able to use that as

  • a, as, not so much as a marketing tool, but as a communication tool to allow the message,

  • provided you have one; a lot of people don't have a message and they're all over the Internet

  • and all over YouTube, and that's all right, too. I mean, it's kind of funny to watch the

  • cat like, chase the alligator for a minute, but at the end of the day, whatever. I think

  • information and content's what's gonna drive that and if you have that, it's much easier

  • now to meet people that might not have ever heard of you. There's a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk,

  • the wine guy, who started out with this weird little thing in New Jersey and now he's, now

  • he sells like ten million dollars worth of wine in a matter of three years. He's taken

  • it from a standard iPhone camera, or whatever camera that you use, and-and-and broadcast

  • himself into a position with the Wall Street Journal, where he's like, the wine guy now

  • for young people. And it's interesting to see how he's managed that and it's because

  • his content is unique. It's because he's funny and because he knows what he's talking about.

  • [incoming tweet sound] And all of the rest is, all of the rest of it is tools that we

  • need to learn how to use or we can disregard and figure out later on. I'm new to the world

  • of tweets, Twitters and twats, as it were. I'm not sure of how you -- the past participle,

  • but--

  • [audience laughs]

  • I guess tweeted. I'm sorry. I'm new to this world and I enjoy it because it's not like

  • I say, "I'm going to get a pedicure." I-I manage it in a way that it seems at least

  • more interesting to me and a few more people than just-- I see a lot of people just saying,

  • "Yeah, I went and I had a tuna sandwich." Well, that's really great. Why did you waste

  • my time telling me that? But if I say, "All right, I went and I understood how they cured

  • this tuna and I made something interesting out of it and I watched it." And there's a

  • whole level of information, then this new social media has traction because it has something

  • more for someone to get their hands into. If it's just, I mean, "We have a party on

  • Thursday and you're all welcome to come," is a great use of it because you might reach

  • people that you want to come that you never would have had access to. But just saying

  • what you're doing, "I got a hair cut on Thursday," is like, "Yeah, right. Good."

  • >>Barry Salzman: I see you put some other content up. Did you wanna talk about that?

  • >>Matt Bardin: I just, you were talking about Puglia and I just wanted to show another feature

  • of the App is to drill down into the recipes by regions.

  • >>Mario Batali: Stretching out eastward toward Greece and Byzantium.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Whoops. So, here's the map of Italy and I got Puglia wrong, sorry, Mario.

  • First, I put up Lazio or something else, but here's Puglia and so here's information about

  • the region and then the recipes that are on this App right now that are from Puglia.

  • >>Mario Batali: Which is pretty cool. 'Cause that's original content. That means that's

  • not in the book. What that is, is you get something that's unique to that, and that's

  • what, that's what kind of drives an App sale for me. A lot of the Apps are like, I like,

  • I like the Google App that you can talk into the phone. That's probably the one I use the

  • most cause I can say, "All right, where the hell is Harry Cipriani right now?" And that

  • finds it for me. But other informational ones, like there's this one by a guy named Ruhlman

  • called Ratio, which for me is the greatest cook App of all time. If-if you have a fundamental

  • understanding of how to cook, and you go on Ratio and it says sausage. It says this is

  • how much of meat, this is how much of fat, and this is how much of spice as a ratio.

  • And if you wanna make a pound of sausage, it tells you what to do. Same thing with a

  • biscuit batter or a cake mix or a, like a hundred things. You go in there and you say,

  • "All right, I wanna know how to make this." And you kinda know how to make roux-based

  • gravy, like a Thanksgiving gravy, how much roux do you need for a gallon of stock?

  • [metal door closing]

  • And it shows you how to--

  • >>Barry Salzman: A lot.

  • >>Mario Batali: I'm not worried. Just so you know -- that's what an aneurysm sounds like.

  • [laughter]

  • So if you have one of those in a private, quiet room, go to your doctor.

  • [laughter]

  • But the idea of -- the information exchange is what it's all about and that's what makes

  • this App kind of distinct. I'm really cooking there with you. It gives you all the information

  • that you might have ever thought about while you're on the show and that's kind of interesting.

  • Yes.

  • >>Female Audience Member #1: Hi, Chef Batali, thanks for coming. So, I actually have a reservation

  • at Lupa with some Googlers tonight.

  • >>Mario Batali: Beautiful.

  • >>Female Audience Member #1: And I'm wondering what should we order?

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: That's an excellent question. Have you been there before?

  • >>Female Audience Member #1: No, it's actually my first time.

  • >>Mario Batali: OK. The best way to understand an Italian meal is to get some antipasti to

  • split up. Then, get one pasta per two or three people and split them. And then everyone get

  • an entree, so that at least everyone gets one thing that they guaranteed they like.

  • But you taste other things, like there's this crazy calves tongue in a slightly briny pickle

  • with sliced onions in it that's called lingua salmistrata that is so good, but so many people

  • wouldn't order it because they won't wanna commit to that appetizer for themselves. So,

  • you get like four, five appetizers for five people, or six people. Then you split a bunch

  • of pastas, then you'll all get your main course. If you never had the cacia & pepe, which is

  • a sheep's milk cheese and black pepper pasta condiment, we do it as better than almost

  • any other place in-in-in America and it's the most classic peasant dish of all Roman

  • trattoria. It is not a fancy dish, it's not a ristorante dish, but it is so good when

  • you taste it that you'll die. You won't die, actually. You'll be happy and live longer.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Female Audience Member #1: I'm going for happy. Thank you.

  • >>Mario Batali: There you go.

  • >>Barry Salzman: All right. So, this is not a shy crowd. You're not gonna make me sit

  • here and read out questions from the Dory, I hope. So--

  • >>Mario Batali: And you don't even have to go to the mic, if you just wanna yell it.

  • Like, I can hear.

  • >>Matt Bardin: There are recipes in the App, by the way.

  • >>Mario Batali: Yes.

  • >>Female Audience Member #2: So, hi, my name's Phoebe. Thanks for coming again.

  • >>Mario Batali: Hi Phoebe.

  • >>Female Audience Member #2: I had the chance to do an internship at a goat farm and one

  • of the things I learned while I was there is that it's very challenging to get a foothold

  • in New York City when you're a small supplier. So, I'm curious, how do you, how do your restaurants

  • make their decisions about which suppliers to go with and how long term are your relationships

  • with your suppliers typically?

  • >>Mario Batali: Good question. The easiest way to impress one of the purchasers--and

  • the purchasers in our restaurants are always the chefs--we don't have like "purchasers;"

  • we don't have that big of an organization. You bring in a sample. You make sure you get

  • an appointment. You talk to the head chef, or a sous-chef, you let them taste the product

  • and if it's great, we'll buy it. We love the idea of local. We love the idea of-of things

  • that represent the Italian ideology. When you talk about ricotta, like, the hardest

  • thing for us to do often is to get sheep or goat milk ricotta because it's inconsistent.

  • Because the animals give up milk when they're ready and if you don't do a lot of the animal

  • husbandry and you can keep your herd in the same kind of growth pattern that you need

  • to make this a year round supply of cheese, if you're out of it for three weeks, you fade

  • out of our radar and we need to find a way that we can get it almost regularly. That

  • said, we'll still run specials with products that maybe come intermittently. Like, listen,

  • it's only in the spring that we get ramps. So, we run ramps in our menu for five, six

  • weeks and then they're gone. Which to me is a very beautiful thing because that causes

  • us, in America, who can buy strawberries on Christmas Eve -- it allows us to understand

  • that, in fact, there's seasons to some of these things and the time that they taste

  • best is when they're in fact coming out of the Mother Earth when Mother Earth planned

  • on it, as opposed to being made in a gaseous environment with grow lights on it. Virtually

  • all of our agriculture is now being run like green pot used to be run out of Northern California--

  • [laughter]

  • You put everything in a dark hole with a lot of light on it and it'll grow as quickly as

  • you need and then you sell it. Two hundred dollars an ounce, it used to be. Now, it's

  • like twice as much as that as far as I can tell.

  • [laughter]

  • And that's what they're doing with the mesclun and all these crazy greens that have absolutely

  • no season and no reason to be on a plate in the middle of the winter. So, that, I mean,

  • the fundamental core of your product is something we want. We want local, farm-made, beautiful

  • products that represent something similar to that in Ita- in Italy. And what we buy,

  • and we don't try to import all the ingredients from Italy. The reason our food tastes Italian

  • is the same reason that the food in, in Venice doesn't taste like the food in Palermo. 'Cause

  • the people in Venice don't buy ingredients from Palermo. They don't like the idea of

  • it. They use all their local ingredients because for an Italian the thing that tastes best

  • is the thing that smells like the wind on a Thursday afternoon within ten minutes of

  • where their mom had them. And if you can capture that smell, whether it's in the Mid Atlantic

  • Hudson Valley, or whether you're in Charleston, or whether you're in Puglia or whether you're

  • in Champagne, Illinois, capturing that regional flavor is the true method ideology that you

  • really wanna get to, when you're cooking something that speaks more than just the recipe, but

  • of the passion of your interest in the flavor of the soil and geospecificity of the place

  • you live in. So, bring us your cheese.

  • [Barry and audience laugh]

  • Yes.

  • >>Male Audience Member #3: So, big fan. Thanks for all the great years on Food Network. So,

  • you brought up salt a second ago and there's this kind of new trend for all different kinds

  • of salt out there. What's your take on the pink Himalaya salt and the smoke salt and

  • either just sea salt and Kosher salt? It would be really interesting to hear about that.

  • >>Mario Batali: For me, I use salt for three things.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Mario, make him buy the App.

  • >>Mario Batali: He's gonna buy the App. Of course he's gonna buy the App.

  • >>audience #3: I didn't even do the QR code yet. I'll--

  • >>Mario Batali: There you go. Well, we need support on the App in this manifestation because

  • so far, I believe it's hard for people to shop for an app in-in the Google space right

  • now, because it's not organized in a way that you can just say," I want Mario Batali's app."

  • You have to say, "Mario Batali, or Mario Cooks" -- or it's very specific to whatever the

  • actual description is, so I'm sure your guys are working on that to make it easier to do.

  • Because if there's any way to make money, this app business is knockin' them out of

  • the park. The guys who present them, the I- company, as well as the G- company, are gonna

  • make a lot of money on this if they can make it easier for the customer to get to the product.

  • Salt is used for three things.

  • [laughter]

  • Salt is used as a preservative, as a flavor enhancer, and as a texture. As a preservative,

  • I would use kosher salt. Like if I'm making salami or I'm making something that I wanna

  • make [incoming tweet sound], like duck comfit or I want something to dry out, if I wanna

  • make gravlax or cured salmon, or anything like that, I use Kosher salt because it's

  • not expensive; it's texture is not so sticky to my fingers and the salinity is relatively

  • benign. There are fine sea salts that are much saltier and you use them in ways that

  • you want to, but I'll get to flavor thing in a whirl. The flavor component, what you're

  • looking for is a salt that's softer, easier, or more intense, or more specifically relates

  • to where the salt came from. There's the wet-looking salt from France; the French have done a great

  • job marketing salt that normally would've been a buck a pound and is now 15 dollars.

  • They have this sel, sel de mer, sel le carmargue, sel de whatever. And some of them were still

  • even wet and we're still buying them. We're buying half-processed salt. And that flavor

  • component is something that matches the dish. If you want something to taste like it's from

  • Puglia, you should buy Puglia olive oil, you should buy Puglia olives, Puglia spaghetti,

  • Puglia tomatoes, and Puglia salt, if you can. That said, what I use and then there's the

  • textual component. And there's this super Sale Mare Grosso from Sicily, there's the

  • Maldon sea salt, which is my personal favorite and that's about the shaley texture and it's

  • slightly lower salinity on a finished dish. Like you cut a steak, you grill a perfect

  • steak, you coat the heck out of it with salt and a little bit of pepper and olive oil and

  • you grill it until it's just charred beautifully and has a nice crust. Inside a steak like

  • this, though, it's not salty on the inside. It's not, it's not seasoned. So, we'll slice

  • the steak and then we'll put a little more extra virgin olive oil and a little bit of

  • this Maldon salt on it, so you get this crunchy texture, a lower level of salinity, but a

  • game that turns up that rare piece of meat in the center, or well done if you so like

  • it. But what it does is it makes that whole chewing experience, that one bite captures

  • everything that I want to say about the potential for beef's flavor. And it's because I salted

  • and crusted it on the outside, I cooked it right, I let it rest, and then I finished

  • it with a different kind of salt. And that's the understanding of salt. And so, I would

  • say you need Kosher salt, and that's also for your pasta water, you need a big crunchy

  • sea salt that you put in a salt grinder, or a pepper grinder to put over things when you

  • cook them, and then you need a crunchy less salty salt to finish dishes, which is my favorite

  • is the Maldon. Now I go into it in much further detail.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Male Audience Member #3: I'll check it out as soon as I can. Thanks.

  • >>Mario Batali: Beautiful. Yes, sir.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: Hi, thanks for coming.

  • >>Mario Batali: My pleasure.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: Thanks for letting us try out your App. I, I had one question

  • and one criticism about the app, if that's OK. The first question I had is, the app has,

  • I believe, 30 or 40 recipes, in total?

  • >>Mario Batali: 65.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: 65. Is there a plan to get more recipes in there, in the

  • future? Is that gonna be an update, or are we gonna have to buy more recipes? How is

  • that gonna work?

  • >>Mario Batali: You're going to have to buy more recipes.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: No, it's fair enough. I just, is that planned?

  • >>Mario Batali: It's just like a cookbook. This is a small cookbook that, for five bucks,

  • is a good deal. The next one, the thought originally was to do an in-store upgrade,

  • but the problem with that is that if, say you sell 150 thousand. The only people that

  • can buy the upgrade are the ones that have the 150 thousand. The idea of selling a second

  • one might be that I'll do the flavors of summer, or I'll do pastas for Easter, or I'll do a

  • smaller one and it will, it will be a more specific need thing. Maybe somebody doesn't

  • want 65 videos; maybe they just wanna know how to make the feast of the seven fishes

  • for Christmas Eve for next year.

  • >>Matt Bardin: So, it's gonna be a separateseparate app.

  • >>Mario Batali: It'll be a completely separate app. And that's a business decision.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: I think it would be, personally, I think it would be cooler

  • if you could expand, if you could download another package that already works with this

  • app. It's the same format. You're already used to using it, but--

  • >>Mario Batali: But you understand that I would limit myself to the people that had

  • already bought it. Like, there would be not one new customer. Because if you didn't buy

  • the first one, you don't even know about the second one. 'Cause it comes up in that first

  • one.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: Depends how you market it.

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, I mean, if you market it, though, and you still have to buy the

  • first one, some people might just say, "You know what? I don't want the first one."

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: Well, you buy the first one with the updates.

  • >>Mario Batali: Right.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: But, all right.

  • >>Matt Bardin: It's possible something could be put in--

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: One kind of criticism I had was I was looking through the app and

  • I was looking at pan con tomate and I was looking at the ingredients and it said something

  • like, what was it, "Six ounces of peeled tomato." I don't know how to measure that. Like, how

  • many tomatoes are that? Is there a way--

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, they have this device called a scale.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: OK.

  • >>Mario Batali: And I know they're hard to find. No, I mean, you could put it in cups,

  • but tomatoes don't really, I mean, like what you do when you go buy a tomato is you put

  • it on the little scale there at the store and that will tell you. Like that. Once you

  • have that, the reason I use measurement like that is because once people see what an eggplant

  • weighs or what an onion weighs, it's always surprising that an onion might cost a dollar.

  • You'd think an onion should almost be free. And then you realize that an onion weighs

  • between a pound, a pound and a half. And you put it on there and it's 49 cents a pound,

  • but it's already 75 cents when you weigh it. And understanding that is to start understanding

  • food and it's, it's seeing it in a different light, although if it challenges you, I'm

  • not happy about it because I'd rather you intuitively understand what we say. But we're

  • kind of stuck using the measurements. It's cups or ounces and ounces kind of throw people,

  • you're right. It kind of throws people off, but you can't really measure a tomato in any

  • other way. I mean, I can't put it, I could say, "This much."

  • >>Matt Bardin: Wait! Doesn't it come in a can?

  • >>Barry Salzman: You could buy a canned tomato.

  • >>Matt Bardin: I mean the tomatoes.

  • >>Mario Batali: We're talking about fresh tomatoes, I think.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: Fresh tomatoes.

  • >>Mario Batali: If we're making pan con tomate, I'm grating it over like this.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Oh, that's a bug. We gotta fix that.

  • >>Mario Batali: All right.

  • >>Matt Bardin: I'll take a look at it.

  • >>Male Audience Member #4: And the party on Thursday? Where, where is that?

  • [Mario laughs]

  • >>Mario Batali: It's at Del Posto and Volkswagon's throwing it and Gavin Rossdale from Bush is

  • playing live at Del Posto. I think that is pretty cool. What time's it start, Pam?

  • >>Pam: Uhh.

  • >>Barry Salzman: She's not telling.

  • >>Mario Batali: She's kind of squishy. I'll be there at 6:30, just for the record. Yes.

  • >>Male Audience Member #5: Hi, I'm out here for the week and New York is awesome as far

  • as restaurants go. A food item I love that you have in your app is--I don't know if I'm

  • saying it right--is brashal or braciole.

  • >>Mario Batali: Braciole.

  • >>Male Audience Member #5: And I can't find it any, at any good Italian restaurant on

  • the West Coast. So what could you recommend out here as the place to get that?

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, there are, of course, my restaurants. And I'm pretty good at that.

  • [laughter]

  • Let me, without being shameless on that, I would say that if you're looking for the classic

  • red sauce done in the most traditional New York style, you can walk through all of Little

  • Italy and never find it, but if you spend 15 minutes on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx at

  • a place like Mario's or Roberto's -- if you haven't been there and you're only here for

  • a couple of days go out there as soon as you're done with work today. Go to Randazzo's, get

  • a couple of clams on the half shell standing outside with a glass of cheap gavi, which

  • hardly exists and then go to any one of the seven, seven great Italian red sauce places

  • within two blocks of Randazzo's and go to the Madonia Bakery and get the prosciutto

  • bread. It will bring you to a place that they don't have anywhere else in America. And not

  • so much in Italy anymore and I know that we have braciole on Thursdays at Lupa. So, I

  • mean, you can go there. But don't discount Arthur Avenue as one of the great things that

  • we have here that we don't, that very rarely do Manhattaners and Brooklyners-- the hipsters

  • that I'm talking about--

  • [laughter]

  • I know where you're from, all right? I know where you all live. We rarely go to the Bronx

  • anymore unless we're going to the Yankee Stadium. And to go to Arthur Avenue and see the real

  • Italian America and tradition alive and better than the Sopranos ever was; that's where I

  • recommend you go. It is wild.

  • >>Male Audience Member #5: Cool. Thank you.

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure.

  • >>Male Audience Member #6: Thank you again. My wife actually grew up in Italy and in five

  • minutes, she can whip something up that takes people hours and tastes half as good. She

  • does a lot of this--

  • >>Mario Batali: Count your lucky stars.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Male Audience Member #6: Oh, I know. She's a keeper. What's your view on improvisation?

  • >>Mario Batali: What's my?

  • >>Male Audience Member #6: Your view on improvisation? I know you have the recipes and maybe switching

  • little things here and there. She seems to have a knack for knowing, "this is gonna go

  • well, this is not gonna go well." How do you view all that?

  • >>Mario Batali: I completely love it. And in fact, the idea of taking a recipe to the

  • grocery store and it says all right veal with mushrooms and escarole and you go there and

  • the mushrooms, they don't look so good, but you buy them because you're feeling like you

  • gotta get it. And the escarole, well, that looks like it's three days old, but you buy

  • it cause you feel you gotta get it. Once you become the master of a certain recipe, you,

  • to-to-to move around within that recipe starts to become intuitive when you experiment a

  • little at the house. I don't say experiment when you have 12 friends over and it's a big

  • wine geek dinner at your house. But what you do do is you understand that a shitake mushroom

  • certainly works for a portabella mushroom, neither of which might not be as good as a

  • porcini mushroom, but at 38 dollars a pound, porcini mushrooms might be a special occasion.

  • So, maybe just cook crimini mushrooms today. And mushrooms are obvious because that's the

  • natural thing, but when you start to understand kind of the genus of the different kinds of

  • things that you're using, like any cruciferous vegetable will work, if broccoli raab isn't

  • there. And you could use broccoli, but you could also use cauliflower or you could also

  • use the Romanesco and understanding that they come in kind of groups is where you can start

  • to experiment and that's when you really become the master. Like, you read a cookbook and

  • you make these three recipes and they're all good and understanding that if you're doing

  • something braising, like an osso bucco and it's traditionally got carrots and onions

  • and celery, that you could use celery root and put mushrooms in there as well, or dried

  • porcini. You start to think outside that box and that's when you start to become the master

  • of your own destiny. And that's when cooking becomes something that is instead of going

  • with a recipe to the store, you go and you buy the five best things like, "That looks

  • unbelievable today." And then you get home and you figure out what you're gonna make.

  • It's less about the recipe and more understanding the steps of the technique. If it's just a

  • sauté and then some stuff goes in the pan and then you finish it with wine and finish

  • the sauce, then it could be anything. And you're only limited by your imagination and

  • every now and then you have kind of a dud. But a dud isn't that bad 'cause it means you

  • made it anyway. The real component here is these; the human touch. The actual nature

  • of something being handmade is what distinguishes it from the rest of people's food. And if

  • we can get our hands on it or get someone that we like, or even love or don't even really

  • care for, but will appreciate their technique, if we can get their hands on our stuff, than

  • that handmade component is what really transforms something from being pretty good to really

  • exceptional.

  • >>Male Audience Member #6: Thank you.

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure. Yes.

  • >>Female Audience Member #7: Hi. My name is Dahila.

  • >>Mario Batali: Hi, Dahlia.

  • >>Female Audience Member #7: Thank you for coming in. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but

  • the goal of your app is to provide original information to users in a unique way and to

  • engage them. How has the response been and do you think you're achieving that goal?

  • >>Mario Batali: I don't, original is an odd thing when you're talking about a cuisine

  • that's three thousand years old. It's kinda my take on a lot of the dishes. It certainly,

  • my take is slightly original, but not so much. I'm much more of an adherent to the tradition

  • world than the experimentation or, for lack of a better word, the molecular gastronomy

  • world. So, the content is my kinda take on traditional stuff, but it's, I think it's

  • been successful in that people are cooking more. I think when people walk in to Eataly,

  • they say the same thing, "I wanna eat something." And what we want them to understand is, "Yes,

  • come in and eat something, but eat something in support of understanding that you can make

  • this at your house." And I think that people are starting to use it. Certainly, the larger

  • you can see it, the more you feel like I'm in your kitchen. I haven't had very many complaints,

  • but again, I don't read complaint mail very often.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: You can look at the reviews on that other store.

  • >>Mario Batali: Okay. So the reviews are good.

  • >>Matt Bardin: They're very positive.

  • >>Matt Bardin: People love the app.

  • >>Female Audience Member #7: Thanks.

  • >>Mario Batali: So, I guess we're good.

  • >>Matt Bardin: I just wanna chime in with one other thing about the other, your question.

  • You know that it was a choice to-- Mario, how many recipes do you have in your device?

  • Like, 800,000 or something?

  • >>Mario Batali: No, like 120,000.

  • >>Matt Bardin: No, but literally he has thousands and in terms of making this app, we discussed

  • doing something that wouldn't have the video content and the images, but it seemed like

  • you kind of wanna put this guy in your device and not just have a bunch of text. So, that's

  • why there were 63 recipes and not 800.

  • >>Mario Batali: Like Mark Bittman.

  • >>Matt Bardin: Right.

  • >>Mario Batali: whose book is brilliant, but he doesn't really show you how to do it like

  • I show you how to do it. So, if there's ever a question on technique, not that ours is

  • that complicated, but this should remove any doubt if there's ever a question on how far

  • it brown is brown. Or how deep, dark, golden brown something needs to get before you turn

  • it over before you braise. Or how to deal with pesto or whatever. It's very visual;

  • it's very obvious; it's very clear, I think, I hope.

  • >>Male Audience Member #7: Thank you.

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure.

  • >>Barry Salzman: So, Mario, can we just take those last four questions?

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure, sure.

  • >>Barry Salzman: OK, so we'll cut it off after the fourth.

  • >>Mario Batali: All right.

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: So, I was introduced to OTTO in my first week in New York, seven

  • years ago, and I still go regularly and over the years I got a few questions. So, first

  • can you tell us something about the pizza recipe there because it looks kind of unique?

  • >>Mario Batali: At OTTO?

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: Yeah.

  • >>Mario Batali: I decided that I wanted to put a restaurant in One Fifth Avenue, which

  • is very near my house, directly across the street. I love the building, I love the look

  • of it, I love the location and I love the fact that it was very much featured in "Ghostbusters",

  • if you remember when the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was coming down the path to crush Bill

  • Murray. Although, the large shot showed him on Central Park. It's, in fact, in that building.

  • [laughter]

  • So, I was very excited about that.

  • [laughter]

  • The problem with that building is that there is no gas lines. There is no open flame. It

  • is all electric, so we had to create a pizza recipe that would work on a flat-top griddle

  • and an under hood broiler. So we did, which has a slightly, a little bit more yeast; a

  • lot less manipulation with it. And it's relatively crisp and not so elastic like some of the

  • Neapolitan pizzas that are enjoying fame right now. I think it's a delicious pizza. It is

  • -- in Italy, every different region has its own different kind of pizza. The pizza in

  • the rage right now is the Neapolitan, which is considered the mother of all pizzas. And

  • it's got a little bit more pull to it; it's very light and has this kind of spongy not

  • so crisp top and a lot of it is very wet in the center. I like it a little less wet in

  • the center, so we put less stuff on it, but I think the fundamental similarities that

  • we share with all good pizzas is that there's not too much stuff on it ever. And it's really

  • about the balance between the dough and the condiment, which is very much like in pasta.

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: And my other question is a--

  • [coughs]

  • sorry. I tried all your other Italian restaurants, and the Spanish ones. It seems like you-you-you

  • have the range of like, very expensive ones and less expensive ones and then there's OTTO.

  • It's really cheap.

  • >>Mario Batali: Cheap is a bad word--

  • [laughter]

  • >>Matt Bardin: Inexpensive.

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: Frugal. Yeah, in a very good way.

  • >>Mario Batali: Right.

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: [clears throat] So, I often sit there and eat pasta alla norma

  • or something, and I wonder how can you actually sell it for nine dollars? It's cheaper than

  • really bad pastas I ate elsewhere, and it's great. [clears throat twice] Like, do you

  • lose money when I, when I eat there?

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: I appreciate your concern. Thank you.

  • [laughter]

  • And one day we're gonna turn a profit there. As long as you stop ordering so much of the

  • pasta alla norma. No, what, what, what, our trademark, and particularly in our less expensive

  • restaurants, is to make it even a little bit more like real food in Italy. And when you

  • eat really great food in Italy, often enough what surprises you, even though maybe you're

  • not so cognizant of it, what surprises you is the lack of white noise. There's, when

  • you order spaghetti with peas and prosciutto in Italy, it's literally only spaghetti with

  • peas and prosciutto. Like, the prosciutto's the fat, the peas are in it; maybe a dusting

  • of parmesan origiano. But what the fundamental difference is, is there's not a lot of extra

  • chef ego on there. And in that same sense, when you eat pasta alla norma there, it's

  • basic tomato sauce, it's the eggplant that we've baked in the oven and then a little

  • bit of that creamy ricotto over the top. There's not a lot of other stuff, so it's easy for

  • me to make. It's inexpensive because I'm not adding all of this ornate, technical components,

  • which means I need a lot more hands to cook it. And then people eat it and they order

  • -, and it's not like a giant portion. Like Americans have come to expect that the one

  • pound bag is a unique serving size.

  • [laughter]

  • And in Italy, between 70 and 90 grams is the normal size of a portion. So, you get six

  • portions out of one bag of spaghetti because they expected to eat something else, whether

  • it's just a salad or two slices of prosciutto or a small main course. So, you're getting

  • the right portion and what you're doing is because it's nine and you're having another

  • couple of things, so that maybe you get to 20 dollars or 15 dollars or wherever the normal

  • is, but you can find a satisfying experience on that. So, thank you and thanks for coming

  • in and thanks for your concern. OTTO is my most profitable restaurant.

  • [Barry laughs]

  • Because we sell a lot of wine, too. I mean, the whole experience is a very fair deal.

  • And it works out really well, but I mean also keep in mind profit is based on volume and

  • OTTO this last Saturday did 1273 people. Woohoo!

  • [laughter and clapping]

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: Any chance of any cheaper restaurant? Any more less expensive--

  • >>Mario Batali: Less expensive?

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: less expensive restaurant, which you would make more money

  • on?

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: I'm always working on them. Have you been to Eataly yet?

  • >>Male Audience Member #8: I tried.

  • >>Mario Batali: Go! Just go on and don't go on a Saturday and don't go when there's a

  • velvet rope and some guy talking into his wrist in the afternoon. I'm sorry about that.

  • >>audience #7: I tried going--

  • >>Mario Batali: I open up this great thing that I was so excited about and basically,

  • I walk into my building and I get in the elevator and the guy looks at me and says, "Nice line,

  • asshole."

  • [laughter]

  • What? He said, "Yeah, there's a line 300 people long to get here, fucking grocery store, asshole."

  • [laughter]

  • I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. Thank you.

  • >>Male Audience Member #9: Hi, Mario, my name is Frederick. I am, I would to talk a little

  • bit about Eataly and I think it was the opening was the 31st of August and I know the concept

  • from Europe. I know you briefly talked about the beginning, but do you think this is a,

  • like, a sustainable business? Like, sort of a melting pot for Italian culture and so on?

  • My own experience was I obviously loved the variety of products and foods. It felt seeing

  • there a little bit like a supreme in McDonalds, in terms of efficiency and so on, and the

  • coffee is, I didn't find it particular good, but I like the place in terms of--

  • >>Mario Batali: Did you drink your coffee at the Lavazza bar or at the Vergnano?

  • >>Male Audience Member #9: The very, at the entrance and that fits like a Starbucks more--

  • >>Mario Batali: Yeah, it does.

  • >>Male Audience Member #9: than anything else.

  • >>Mario Batali: Come in another 30 feet and there's a big silver machine and all they

  • sell is espresso and espresso macchiato. There are no milk drinks. There is no other things

  • other than those two things and it's two and a quarter. Go in and have that coffee and

  • I assure you your coffee faith will be restored. As for the rest, efficiency is what Americans

  • bring to the table. The passion, the excitement and the product are what the Italians bring

  • to the table. It's definitely sustainable. Last Saturday, 14700 people went grocery shopping

  • there. Which is a number that I have no idea how it happens. But what it is, unfortunately,

  • like any great thing in New York, it's over-crowded during peak hours and it's just right during

  • non-peak hours. So, the best way to understand a place like that is to go at 9:30 at night,

  • or go at 10 o'clock in the morning on the weekends, but on Saturday and Sunday, between

  • like one and eight, it is, it's like a Beatle's concert. It's crazy.

  • >>Male Audience Member #9: So, I guess this has been a success then so far. Do you think

  • they're gonna expand it to other cities as well?

  • >>Mario Batali: Yes, and we love the expansion idea. I am a partner in Eataly in North Central

  • and South America. I would say probably our next location will be Toronto and probably

  • our third location will be Mexico City. And then I'll try to find one in America. You

  • need the sophisticated clientele that you get in an inner city as well as the resulting

  • high-rolling suburbs, but they need to be, they need to. It can't feel like it's gonna

  • be in Pasadena. It can't, to me, look like it's in a mall. It needs to be in a place

  • that kind of embodies the, like we're in the toy building in Manhattan, which is a beautiful

  • building right across from the Flatiron. And it needs to feel a part of that vibrant part

  • of that live city culture. It wouldn't feel good in, in Culver City in Los Angeles. It

  • wouldn't feel good outside of Chicago; it would have to be down in the middle of town.

  • So, the real issue is finding that kind of real estate. It's 50 thousand square feet

  • in a place that makes sense. So we're looking into it. But Toronto is like a homerun. It's

  • easy. We can get downtown location. It's the largest population of Italian North Americans

  • outside of New York and a great place to be. So, that's where we're going. Thanks. Vergnano.

  • Caffe Vergnano. Yes.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: Hi.

  • >>Mario Batali: Hi.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: So, I wanted to just ask, so you deliver very traditional

  • Italian dishes to sort of the American market. Do you find that sometimes you have to compromise

  • on certain things to suit the American palate? So, saylike if you go to Rome and you

  • get a pasta and it's very al dente; there's like maybe two, three ingredients in it. It's

  • not very heavily seasoned. Do you find that dishes like that maybe aren't so popular here

  • and you don't try and sell them, or do you try and adjust it to suit a palate? Like,

  • how do you struggle between staying very traditional and sort of suiting to the American taste?

  • >>Mario Batali: That's a very good question. I would say that the one compromise that we

  • might make would be that there's probably ten percent more sauce on our pastas here

  • than there would be in Italy. Anywhere. Anywhere in Italy. And that's because they look at

  • the dish as the noodle and the condiment, or the sauce, as like, salad dressing. Like,

  • the idea of having extra dressing at the bottom of a salad is repugnant to all of us. The

  • idea of having a little extra sauce to drag up with our bread is kind of what the Americans

  • feel their right is. It's rare that we'll send out, if someone says, "Can I have extra

  • sauce?" We have to actually say no. But we put a little bit more on just to kind of stem

  • that tide. Al dente is a concept that Americans only think about.

  • [laughter]

  • Many of them love saying it and many of them actually like to say "al Dante."

  • [laughter]

  • Dante was a Tuscan poet from the 1400's.

  • [laughter]

  • If we had anything al Dante it would certainly be rather disgusting and buried, so--

  • [laughter]

  • Al dente in Italy is one thing. It is almost crunchy and Americans just don't love it and

  • the Italians absolutely do. So when we recognize the low-tip potential of a six top of Italians,

  • we definitely undercook their pasta to the level that we think they want. If Americans

  • say al dente, I mean we serve it in the realm, but if you want it, if someone says they want

  • it like Italy, we will make it literally 30 seconds less in the water.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: So, we can actually request that?

  • >>Mario Batali: Oh, absolutely.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: When we visit your restaurant?

  • >>Mario Batali: Say I want it just like Mario says and if you go to Eataly, that's the only

  • way we serve it. And we piss off 20 customers a day, but if they want it more cooked we

  • just put it back in the pan, no problem.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: OK, thank you.

  • >>Mario Batali: So ask for it Italian al dente.

  • >>Female Audience Member #10: Fantastic, thanks.

  • >>Mario Batali: Sure. Yes.

  • >>Female Audience Member #11: So as the last question, thank you again for coming.

  • >>Mario Batali: Oh great.

  • >>Female Audience Member #11: I think that your most well-known for your Italian dishes

  • and your Italian cooking and most of the conversation today has been about Italian cooking, but

  • you also have this little place called Casa Mono, which I think is one of my favorite

  • restaurants. It's fantastic. And now that you've opened Eataly and we have the perfect

  • place to go buy all of our Italian products, where can I go buy my Spanish products, or

  • where should I go?

  • >>Mario Batali: Despania on Broome has just about anything you'd ever need. Also, latienda.com

  • is where they get all their stuff.

  • [laughter]

  • So, when you wanna buy morcilla and you don't wanna pay their markup, latienda delivers

  • overnight just like everyone else does. The real winners in the, in the Internet trade

  • business are the customers and UPS and FedEx.

  • [laughter]

  • So, as long as we understand that, then it's great 'cause we can get products delivered,

  • I mean, let's put it this way. If you go on peck.eat.it and you wanna get a culatello,

  • which is illegal to bring in, and you tell them to mark it with "book" label on the outside,

  • they will ship that to your house and no one will stop it.

  • [Female Audience Member #11 laughs]

  • So, there's a thousand ways to get around the pesky rules of the USDA.

  • [laughter]

  • But that said, that said, the Spanish products outside of the really hoof on Iberico, we

  • can get just about everything cause the Spanish guys kind of paid attention a little bit more

  • quickly and didn't kind of isolate some of their products. So, go to Despania on Broome

  • and maybe Green--

  • >>Barry Salzman: Lafayette.

  • >>Mario Batali: Lafayette? Great store. And they have tortilla espanola perfectly made.

  • Almost as good as the one we make at Bar Jamon.

  • >>Female Audience Member #11: Perfect. And I was one of only ten people in Eataly almost

  • locked in there for the night on Sunday. So, that's a totally different experience.

  • >>Mario Batali: You got the luck of being locked in there?

  • >>Female Audience Member #11: I did. Almost.

  • >>Mario Batali: You know people will pay for that.

  • >>Female Audience Member #11: I know.

  • [laughter]

  • >>Mario Batali: Well, thank you.

  • >>Barry Salzman: So our, in appreciation, our commitment as a team is to download enough

  • of these apps to get it to number one on the Android store so we stop hearing about the

  • other people and how they do a better job of promoting. So, help me out with that, folks.

  • Mario, anything you wanted to say about the app before -- anything else before we, before

  • we wrap?

  • >>Mario Batali: I think the funnest part about it is if you like me, you can have me in your

  • kitchen.

  • [laughter]

  • If you don't, you shouldn't download the app. I'm sorry.

  • [laughter]

  • But it's-it's-it's me doing what I do and what I enjoy in a very relaxed setting, very

  • much like this, and it feels like this. You don't necessarily get my witty response and

  • repartee, but you do get the answers to your questions. And if you say, I say, and then

  • you zest a lemon, and you say, "I don't know how to zest a lemon," or, "I don't know how

  • to trim an artichoke," or, "I don't know how to make a ragu," or whatever, you can go to

  • the video that will give you that information with the support. And that's what this is

  • about. This is not the most voluminous recipe-heavy app on the market, but it is the one with

  • the most clear, most distinct, most personal presentation of my take on what this food

  • can and should be. And that's why you would buy this app. Yes.

  • >>Male Audience Member #12: One more question. What do you think about the Barney's Holiday

  • Window?

  • [Mario laughs]

  • >>Mario Batali: What do I think about Barney's Windows? If you haven't seen them, there's

  • this crazy guy named Simon Doonan, who's a visionary whose job it is to draw the eyes

  • of the world to Barney's Christmas Window so that you'll go there. I was the sacrificial

  • animal in the middle of this table and there was something with a neck of mine about this

  • big and then in the tiny neck was a miniature orange crocs all around me and in the middle

  • of my mouth is an apple, or something red and large.

  • >>Barry Salzman: Wow.

  • >>Mario Batali: I'm flat-, like reading Heat. It's flattering to be a part of it; it's not

  • that beautiful to enjoy myself.

  • [laughter]

  • But that said, it's iconically clear where their caricature is going. And I'm just proud

  • to be in the game. So, I'm, I'm all right with it. It's funny; the one in Vegas is even

  • weirder. You gotta see it, it's pretty strange.

  • [laughter]

  • But that said, it's fascinating and fun and the pop culture component of our business

  • is wild and it's amazing how many people pay attention to it and see it and know about

  • it, even from a perspective of someone who doesn't shop at Barney's and doesn't even

  • go to 61st Street very often, of which, I fit into both of those categories. But that

  • said, it's kinda cool. And Simon Doonan is wacky. I mean, it's like being in a Disney

  • cartoon. He's wacky. I love it.

  • >>Barry Salzman: So, I wanted to say when I kicked this off, I said I didn't think you'd

  • disappoint and I think that was absolutely right and Mario, I just have to say the personality

  • is a whole lot more colorful than the hair and shoes put together. So, thank you very,

  • very much for joining us today. It was a pleasure.

  • >>Mario Batali: Thank you all.

  • [applause]

>>Barry Salzman: Good afternoon. For those of you I've not met before, I'm Barry Salzman

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