EP 123: Chef Mario Batali Celebrates America's Favorite Regional Comfort Foods

Celebrity Chef Mario Batali (host of The Chew) comes on the show to celebrate America’s favorite regional dishes and talk about his new book Big American Cookbook: 250 Favorite Recipes from Across the USA. We talk about the history of our regional cuisines and how they evolved from popular “Old World” recipes brought over by our immigrant forefathers. We discuss the amazing diversity of barbecue, the age-old debate over New England clam chowder vs. Manhattan clam chowder, and where he thinks the next big culinary scene is about emerge. He discusses the origins of his love for cooking, how he maintains quality and consistency when operating 26 different restaurants around the world, and why it's not the end of the world if you can't buy “locally grown and organic." Plus proper pickling/preserving and other helpful tips.

Order Chef Mario Batali’s Big American Cookbook: 250 Favorite Recipes from Across the USA on Amazon. You can watch his show The Chew every weekday on ABC, visit his website at www.mariobatali.com for all kinds of other fun stuff, and follow him on twitter at @mariobatali.