Celebrity Chef Mario Batali Steps Aside After Allegations Of Sexual Misconduct : NPR
KLUDT
AMANDA KLUDT: Hi  Kelly.
 KLUDT :  She  was at a party in New Orleans. And he was being sexually suggestive to  her  throughout the party. But then at one point  someone spills wine on  her  shirt  and he tried to mop it up with his hands. But it obviously wasn't in a friendly way. It was in a much more sexual way.
 KLUDT : Sure. We had someone who had worked for  him  in a short capacity. And she ran into  him  at an industry event  and  he  groped her as well.  He  was visibly intoxicated. And she went to check on  him   and  he  lunged at both of her breasts with  his  hands. We have another person who worked for  him . And she was cooking in tight conditions with  him   and she had to straddle  him  in order to exit the kitchen to go to the bathroom. And we just heard a lot of other similar reports of this kind of behavior and more subtle sexual harassment.
KLUDT: I mean  he's the biggest chef in the food industry as far as I can tell. He has TV shows. He has restaurants around the country. His company brings in almost $250 million in profits a year. He's also a big face for charities. He's a big face for the (RED) charity. He has a lot of different interests in a lot of different areas.
KLUDT: We told them about our report on Wednesday  so that's when they first heard from us. They told us that they had an internal complaint about him in October and said that that was the first official complaint that they'd received from an employee. So I'm not sure if they've had more or not  but that's what they said to us.
 KLUDT :  He  sent an apology to us that was pretty thorough.  He  said -  he  didn't deny really much of anything.  He  said it sounded like  him  and that  he  was going to immediately step away from the day-to-day operations of  his  businesses. And then the company said that they take these matters very seriously  and they are going to up their training. They're going to bring in an outside firm to help with training. And then ABC's "The Chew" immediately said they didn't want to work with  him  while they investigate this.
 KLUDT : Absolutely. I mean  he's just one of many chefs that we've received tips about. He was the one that we started looking into first. But we have a lot more that we need to start looking at now.
MCEVERS:  Amanda Kludt  is editor-in-chief of Eater  which broke the story of multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Mario Batali. Thank you very much.
KLUDT: Thank you  Kelly.
AMANDA KLUDT: Hi  Kelly.
 [TGT][TGT]  was at a party in New Orleans. And [TGT] was being sexually suggestive to  [TGT]  throughout the party. But then at one point  someone spills wine on  [TGT]  shirt  and [TGT] tried to mop it up with [TGT] hands. But it obviously wasn't in a friendly way. It was in a much more sexual way.
 KLUDT : Sure. We had someone who had worked for  him  in a short capacity. And she ran into  him  at an industry event  and  he  groped her as well.  He  was visibly intoxicated. And she went to check on  him   and  he  lunged at both of her breasts with  his  hands. We have another person who worked for  him . And she was cooking in tight conditions with  him   and she had to straddle  him  in order to exit the kitchen to go to the bathroom. And we just heard a lot of other similar reports of this kind of behavior and more subtle sexual harassment.
KLUDT: I mean  he's the biggest chef in the food industry as far as I can tell. He has TV shows. He has restaurants around the country. His company brings in almost $250 million in profits a year. He's also a big face for charities. He's a big face for the (RED) charity. He has a lot of different interests in a lot of different areas.
KLUDT: We told them about our report on Wednesday  so that's when they first heard from us. They told us that they had an internal complaint about him in October and said that that was the first official complaint that they'd received from an employee. So I'm not sure if they've had more or not  but that's what they said to us.
 [TGT][TGT]  sent an apology to us that was pretty thorough.  [TGT]  said -  [TGT]  didn't deny really much of anything.  [TGT]  said it sounded like  [TGT]  and that  [TGT]  was going to immediately step away from the day-to-day operations of  [TGT]  businesses. And then the company said that they take these matters very seriously  and they are going to up their training. They're going to bring in an outside firm to help with training. And then ABC's "The Chew" immediately said they didn't want to work with  him  while they investigate this.
 KLUDT : Absolutely. I mean  he's just one of many chefs that we've received tips about. He was the one that we started looking into first. But we have a lot more that we need to start looking at now.
MCEVERS:  Amanda Kludt  is editor-in-chief of Eater  which broke the story of multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Mario Batali. Thank you very much.
KLUDT: Thank you  Kelly.