(Chef)
Mario Batali is one of the country’s most celebrated chefs. He has opened six highly successful restaurants in New York City, including Esca, Del Posto and his flagship Greenwich Village establishment, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca. Batali is a familiar television personality, from his Food Network cooking show, Molto Mario, to his recent PBS series, Spain…On the Road Again, and his appearances as a competitor on Iron Chef. Among his many accolades, Mario was named GQ Magazine’s 1999 “Man of the Year” in the chef category and, in 2002 and 2005 respectively, he won James Beard Foundation awards for “Best Chef: New York City” and “Outstanding Chef of the Year.” Mario is also a recipient of the 2001 D’Artagnan Cervena prestigious lifetime achievement award, “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.”
Mario grew up in Seattle, Washington, one of three children born to Marilyn and Armandino Batali. He spent his childhood watching his grandmother make oxtail ravioli and other Italian specialties passed down in the family. Mario’s father, an engineer for Boeing for 30 years, opened a meat-curing shop in Seattle as a retirement project, attempting to recreate the Italian foods store Mario’s maternal great-great grandparents opened in 1903. The Batali family’s roots are almost entirely in the West. Mario’s great-great-grandfather left Italy for Butte, Montana in 1899 to work in the coal mines and eventually moved further west to settle in Seattle.
i’m italian from caserta with red hair, its common in italy as is fair hair light eyes and dark hair dark eyes, these old sterotypes are nonsense.its as simple as that
wow. racism in Italy…from other Italians. Italians, like many other nationalities are varied in appearance. There is no such thing as 100% anything. Though your lineage may be Italian…if you take a DNA test, you will find other backgrounds, i.e. Middle Eastern, Scandinavian as you suggested, Perhaps Romany, the point is that your folks originated somewhere other than Italy. You have paper trail lineage and you have DNA lineage and the two may be different. I am about 30% Italian, Tuscan and Silician. I have Red hair, amber eyes and fair skin that tans easily. Yes I am mixed, like you are if you did the test you would find that so. As to looking down on Sicilians, you might want to further review your history and get of your high horse. Sicilians are Italian and deserve the same respect that the Northerners seem so eager to withhold. Why is that? I here that over and over by “Northern” Italians as though you think you are superior. Sad. By the way, the mafia is present all through Italy, not to mention the church which has lied, killed and stolen from people for hundreds of years. Do the history of Catholic church- not what they tell you, but he actual History. How does the church differ from the mafia? Oh, right…they wear pointy hats and big robes and big gaudy jewelry professing to be “men of god”. Right. Jesus did not like greed and money driven temples and churches. Remember? so stop criticizing Southern Italians and get off your high horse.
ugh
I am 100% Southern Italian and proud of it. My father’s parents were born in Naples (city). My father had dark hair, green eyes and fair skin. His parents and siblings all had fair skin. My mother’s side was from Messina (city), Sicily. My mother had light red hair and hazel eyes, her mother had very dark hair and eyes and fair skin, her father had blond hair, hazel eyes and a pink complexion. One of her sisters had a darker red hair and brown eyes, her brothers and one sister had dark hair and fair skin, and two sisters had dark hair, dark eyes and medium complexions that were called “dark” because they were the darkest in the family. My two brothers and I were all born blond – later turned dark – one has blue eyes, the other hazel and I have green. My sister has my two grandmothers’ coloring; very dark hair and eyes and very fair complexion.
Just had to get this off my chest to explain how diversified we are in the south of Italy for whatever reasons – much too complicated to explain here. And remember, what we DO know from recorded history, is only the last 3,000 years – the tip of the iceberg considering the fact that humans settled and were moving around for HUNDREDS THOUSANDS OF YEARS and we have very little idea what they looked like!
In addition: I mention that my grandparents were from cities (Naples and Messina) because not all Italian immigrants were from poverty-stricken rural backgrounds – and no disrespect to those who were – but there were those from other social classes and who came due to circumstances.
Anyway, Sicilian or Neapolitan, Roman or Venetian, Tuscan or Calabrese – we have an incredibly beautiful culture and some damn good food too!!
I’m half-Sicilian through my father’s side and a European mix (including some northern Italian – Florentine to be exact) through my mother’s side. I really enjoyed Mario’s commentary, and I’ll also chip in and say that Italians vary widely within the Caucasian/European spectrum. I have dark hair, green eyes, and a fair/medium complexion that tans well. My Sicilian father has dark hair, hazel eyes, and a medium/light olive complexion, which is much like the stereotypical Sicilian/southern Italian, but I have several relatives on his side with very fair skin, and some with blue/green eyes and blond/light brown hair (no redheads to the best of my knowledge, but I’ve also known a few redheaded Sicilians). Conversely, a few of my father’s cousins (also fully Sicilian) could easily pass for Lebanese or even North African. Also, my maternal Florentine great-grandmother was blonde as a child (turned darker brown into adulthood), and had fair skin and blue eyes. Yet, she still looked Italian because her facial features were very “Romanesque.”
I also get annoyed when people stereotypically assume that all Italians have to be dark, when this is hardly the case at all. This is even true for Sicily and the south, which was invaded and conquered by people from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Greeks, Romans/mainland Italians, Arabs, Normans, French, Spaniards, and others all made their way to Sicily over the millenia, each contributing to the gene pool of the population. It’s likely that blond/redheaded and/or light-eyed Sicilians owe their traits to Norman or French ancestors, though some Greeks and even a few Arabs and other Middle Easterners show lighter hair or eyes too, so it’s all just one big mix in the Mediterranean region. That said, the average standard Italian appearance seems to be brown/dark brown hair and light skin (not pasty white but not olive either), in my experience.
Also, to the northern Italians who feel the need to bash Sicilians and southerners, first off, stick the racism, and secondly, pick up a credible history book and read about Italian history to understand why the north has generally been more affluent and industrialized than the south. The south had fewer natural resources to take advantage of, and was also always being invaded and conquered by various foreign nations, which stifled economic development and led to secret societies which eventually evolved into the corrupt criminal organization we know as the Mafia. The north also exploited the south throughout much of its history, especially during the early years of united Italy, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. All that led to the massive emigration of southerners to America and elsewhere, like my own great-grandparents who left Sicily for a better life here in Pennsylvania.
The Batali portrait is by and large a wash and doesn’t fully reflect the experience and sufferings of Italians in America. The fact that more of us fought and died in WW2 than any other ethnic group. The fact that they used to fry us in New England and hang us in New Orleans. Many other profiles admit discrimination and yet this is largely left out where it pertains to olive skin. To this day the media is still filled with negative hateful stereotypes.
reading this it said that his father went to butte montana to work the coal mines, well never were coal mines in butte just copper and other precious metals
it’s very good !!!
I have hearded his mom is French Canadian??? From Yakima??
Add this one: “The Normans in Sicily” by John Julius Norwich
My Dad’s family emigrated from Menfi/Sciacca in the early 20th Century. Both of my grandparents had blue/grey eyes and dark brown hair and fair complexions and more than half of the children had blue/grey eyes. My grandfather’s grandfather arrived in Sciacca in the 1830s having left Venice by ship — we don’t know if they were from Venice or if it was a stop on the way.
I am 100% Sicilian with fair skin and red hair. My grandmother was born in Corleone and she a blue eyed blonde. Other grandmother from Cefalu was fair with red hair. Grandfather from Busaquina. (Sp>) fair but darker hair. My other grandfather from Calabria was dark skin, dark hair and eyes.
The Normans from England, Sweden, Spain and other Northern European countries invaded Sicily in the early 1100’s. It is maybe because we are beautiful people that others want to label us. We may be uncommon but we are 100% Sicilian. Thank you very much!
Wow, Loretta
You really are not educated to write stereotypical comments. My family is from southern Italy and educated and NOT in the mafia. Also the “Stereo type” dark skin and dark features you speak about exist all throughout Italy. I have red hair and pale skin and am educated so what does that say about southern Italians. Both my maternal grandparents had Green eyes. My father’s side of the family is dark and Guess what? His mother was Swiss Italian. Yes, the mafia has it’s origins in Sicily but, it thrives quite well all throughout Northern Italy especially from Milano to Lugano. You see Loretta; it’s your narrow thinking that fuels the ignorant ideologies of the past.
I am an Italian citizen and drive through the country from North to South and I speak Italian and many regional dialects from North to South. And I have written many papers on organized crime so when I speak I come from a place of knowledge.
I love Northern Italy and my best friends are from the north and I can tell you they don’t have the arrogant attitude that you portray in your comment. You should also know that Northern Italy had great difficulty with employment and many northern Italian immigrated to Germany, Argentina, The United States, France and Canada because of this. I have met many uneducated Northern and Southern Italians and they are all wonderful people that were victims of circumstance. You should also look up the hisory of Bari, Naples etc.. and see the pattern of the House of Savoy and many of the Rothchilds made there home in Southern Italy. The north also had Rural areas, and the people like in south work the land and have to travel into citites.
I want you to remember that when you say 100% Italian that is very vague as you must know Italy has many different cultural influences and you may very well have Germanic roots and that is where you’re physical features descend from. I suggest you complete a DNA genealogical test and, remember when Italians crossed the ocean to North America there was no difference everyone was treated the same with prejudice they didn’t have a distinction of Northern and Southern Italians.
My Southern Italian Grandmother’s house provided a home for many Italians both Northern and Southern. Remember not to judge a book by its cover there is no “standard” idea of what and Italian or any other cultural race should look like we all vary and that is what makes us individuals. I wish you all the best and I suggest you visit Ellis Island if you haven’t and Pier 21 in Halifax to see what hardships immigrants had to endure to make a better life and leave the fascists and prejudices behind them.
Grazia
It is absurd to suggest that using sustainable biomass is dirtier than fossil fuels. Unlike fossil fuels, burning biomass to produce electricity can only release carbon which was absorbed while the biomass was growing. Burning coal releases new carbon which had been locked away underground for millions of years.