"del posto" news and stories

Mario Batali has been busy lately.

In recent weeks he opened his Italian food emporium Eataly in Manhattan and launched the inaugural issue of his new promotional magazine Viaggio. He's also working on a new online cookbook project, The Celebrity Pasta Lovers Cookbook, created with actress Julianne Moore and sponsored by Barilla pasta (through it's Share the Table project, featuring pasta recipes from film and television stars like Jimmy Fallon and Meryl Streep).

So we felt very lucky (and knew we had to talk fast) when Batali took the time to sit down with Slashfood in New York City to chat about pasta, pizza and all things Italian.

Del Posto restaurant in New York City serves a lasagna that's 100 layers. Nope, that's not a typo.

Mark Ladner, the chef at the high-end Italian restaurant (owned by Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich), was inspired by the tortilla Espanola at Casa Mono. He admits that it takes a lot of people to construct the multi-layered dish.

"Three separate departments work on it," he told Slashfood. "One department makes the ragu, one makes the pasta sheets and another assembles it in giant square pans. We butter the inside of the pans and start building in them, alternating the layers of pasta and sauce, which are Bolognese, tomato marinara and a besciamella."

The only tricky part of the whole procedure is the setting process, which Ladner says can be "fickle." Skewers are used to stabilize it while it's hot and a special spatula is used to serve it.

Photo: Michelin.

Michelin's "New York City Restaurants 2010" dining guide was released this week, bumping up Daniel Boulud's Daniel restaurant to three stars while stripping Mario Batali's Del Posto of a star.

Daniel is in small company in the three-star category of "exceptional cuisine and worth the journey." Masa, Per Se, Jean Georges and Le Bernardin also retained their three-star ratings.

Del Posto dropped from the two-star category ("excellent cooking and worth a detour") to one star ("a very good restaurant in its category").

Other restaurants that saw significant changes include the Italian restaurant Alto, with a bump up to two stars and Corton, which also won a double star.

What do you think of guidebook ratings? Let us know in the comments below.

Mario Batali. Photo: Bauer-Griffin.

Mario Batali's on the hook for some back rent. According to a suit filed Sept. 4, the celebrity chef and his business partner Joseph Bastianich, owe $75,000 for their now defunct seafood restaurant, the John Dory.

"It's going to be settled," Bastianich told the New York Daily News on Wednesday. "We've returned the space back to the landlord, and the rent is going to be paid today or tomorrow."

The pair were guarantors of the failed restaurant, the Daily News reports.

For those of you keeping tabs on the ongoing legal troubles of Mario Batali and Joseph and Lidia Bastianich, owners of Del Posto,  the New York Observer has a very detailed summary of the goings on. For those unaware, the short end of it is this: Batali and company are in the middle of dispute with the new landlords of their opulent stab at four-star restaurant glory (Mr. Bruni recently awarded Del Posto three stars). The NYO article does a smart job of sorting out the tangled story of eviction notices, utility interruptions and other landlord-tenant brouhaha. The whole deal will supposedly go to court this week.

[Via The Food Section: Appetizers]