Woman Sues Mario Batali, Saying He Groped Her in Boston Bar

A Massachusetts woman who says the celebrity chef Mario Batali sexually assaulted her at a Boston bar in April 2017 filed a lawsuit against him Wednesday, seeking damages for the infliction of emotional distress after sexual assault.

The woman, Natali Tene, 28, said Batali offered to take a selfie with her at Towne Stove and Spirits, then kissed and groped her without her permission. Her account was first reported by Eater in May.

The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, states that Batali repeatedly kissed Tene’s face, rubbed her breasts, grabbed her buttocks and put his hands between her legs, groping her groin. Tene was shocked and disgusted, the suit says, and has since suffered emotional distress, anxiety and self-doubt.

Tene is one of several women who have come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali, 57. After their accounts were reported in December, he was fired from the ABC talk show “The Chew.” His food products and cookbooks were removed from shelves at Eataly, and Batali stepped away from daily operations at the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group. He and his partners are in negotiations to divide their holdings.

The New York Police Department said in May that it was investigating whether to charge Batali on criminal counts related to two women’s complaints that he sexually assaulted them at the Spotted Pig and Babbo, a Greenwich Village restaurant the group owns. In a report in The New York Times in December, several people said that Ken Friedman, an owner of the Spotted Pig, and Batali, an investor and frequent visitor there, had touched, propositioned and coerced female employees.

On Monday, the New York state attorney general’s office said it was investigating allegations of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination at the restaurant. As part of its civil rights investigation, the office issued a subpoena seeking records related to Friedman and Batali, according to a person with direct knowledge of the subpoena who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was not yet public.

Neither Batali nor a representative responded Wednesday to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Batali has said in a previous statement that “there is no question I have behaved terribly.”