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Celebrity chef Mario Batali was recently acquitted of all charges and allegations against him regarding s*xual misconduct. Deferred by the outbreak of the pandemic, Batali's case finally came to a halt this May when the jury acquitted him of all charges.
Mario Batali's case, which came to the forefront in the wake of the #MeToo movement will be taken up to be made into a documentary. Titled The Fall of a Superstar Chef, it will premiere this week. But before the premiere, here is everything to know about the TV personality.
Who is Mario Batali? Misconduct and allegations explored
Batali is a renowned American celebrity chef and writer. He at one time owned a multimillion-dollar food enterprise and was also a well-known TV personality who hosted a daytime talk show. However, his fall began in 2017 in the light of the #MeToo movement. Batali became one of several prominent chefs, who were accused of s*xual assault and harassment.
But the real blow came from Natali Tene, who filed a lawsuit against Batali and made claims seeking unspecified damages for severe emotional distress.
Tene said that Batali groped her inappropriately in 2017 without her consent and forcibly kissed her while drunkenly posing for selfies with her at a bar near Boston’s Eataly, a local Italian food market and restaurant that Batali partly owned.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 and Batali was charged in 2019 with assault. While Tene wanted to come forward with her full story and share what happened to her, Batali's lawyers claimed that she was lying and fabricating the story for money.
In a non-jury trial, Judge James Stanton acquitted Batali, saying that the evidence Tene provided did not match her claims. Batali pleaded not guilty in the case.
If found guilty, Mario Batali could face two-and-a-half years in jail and be registered as a s*x-offender.
More about the allegations against Mario Batali
This is not the first time the chef has been accused of misconduct.
When the #MeToo movement gained momentum, four women came out accusing Batali of inappropriate behavior in 2017. In the wake of the allegations, he stepped down from the management of his restaurant empire and also left his ABC cooking show.
Earlier, Batali apologized for his conduct, saying:
“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team. My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility."
Batali, along with his business partner and their New York City restaurant company, tried to set the record straight by paying $600,000 as compensation. This came after s*xual harassment allegations that were made by the employees of Batali's company against him and his restaurant managers.
The once-glorious Mario Batali, who was the face of Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, had a major fall in his career owing to the s*xual assault allegations made against him. Catch The Fall of a Superstar Chef to learn more about his story.
