Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, for years among the most renowned restaurateurs on the New York scene, will have to pay a sum of $ 600,000 to compensate at least 20 women who reported being sexually harassed while at work in three of the two chefs’ popular restaurants.
The sum, the result of a plea deal, was unveiled by the attorney general of the state of New York Letitia James who spoke of a work environment permeated by a sexual culture and made up of blackmail and retaliation in violation of city and state laws in defense of human rights.
The company that Batali and Bastainch had created at the time of their partnership, the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, will also pay now. Following the scandal last April the most famous of the restaurants opened in Manhattan by the two chefs, Del Posto, had definitively closed. “Batali and Bastianich have allowed an intolerable work environment to develop with shameful and inappropriate behavior in any situation,” wrote attorney James, adding that “celebrity and fame do not absolve anyone if they are to be pursued by law.”