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This is Mario Batali's moment. Often it's difficult to pinpoint the instant a man becomes a brand. Typically you can identify that moment in retrospect--for instance, if you look at the other stars in the food universe, you could argue that Lagasse became something larger, an uberversion of himself, nearly a decade ago, when his management team literally trademarked his expressions "BAM!" and "Kick it up a notch." You can also predict a branding; with her new magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, the unnaturally perky Ray--who plays a flibbertigibbet on her show 30 Minute Meals but is said to be a savvy businesswoman--seems poised to grow beyond her niche of working women.
But Batali is becoming a brand virtually as you read this. This week he will make the rounds of morning talk shows to promote his new role as the official chef of NASCAR and his new cookbook, Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style. And just as he prepares for cooking demos and book signings at six NASCAR races this season, Batali and business partner Joseph Bastianich, 37, have begun construction on two restaurants in Las Vegas and another site in Los Angeles to be called Mozza that will house both a restaurant and a pizzeria. In July, Batali will launch 78 new items in his cookware line. All that comes after a string of New York City restaurant successes--he has helped open eight Manhattan eateries in the past 13 years--that few chefs can emulate. Many are trying. "Mario does things first, and then two, three years down the line you see it in Cleveland and Chicago," says Patrick Martins, a co-founder of Heritage Foods USA, which sells meat, fish and other goods to high-end restaurants around the U.S. "Mario starts playing with pig bellies and tripe and intestines and even the bladder, and then a lot of people have followed and placed orders [for the same items]. He has reawakened those, quote, low-end cuts."