Chef Mario Batali comes to town with new cookbook and new approach to food

You might have to sit down for this.

Chef Mario Batali, known for downing a case of wine and putting away 20 to 30 dishes in a single meal without needing much help from dining companions, now eats less than you do on some nights.

The celebrity chef whose motto was "wretched excess is just barely enough," said he was horrified at how fat he looked on his television show "Spain ... on the Road Again" and started eating better.

Batali, who grew up in the Seattle area and Yakima, is back Tuesday to promote his latest cookbook, "Molto Gusto," with pizza, pasta, antipasti, salads and gelato recipes. It also features lots of vegetable dishes, indicative of how the new Mario eats.

He is finalizing deals on two new cooking shows, one with him cooking in Sicily and the other in Brooklyn. And he is about to open Eataly in New York City, a 50,000- plus square foot food emporium with six restaurants.

We caught up with him before he landed in Seattle.

Q: So I hear you've lost some weight.

A: Thirty-five to 40 pounds. I weigh about 235 [now.] I was big.

Q: What's a typical Mario eating day?

A: I eat half of whatever they put in front of me in restaurants. I eat a lot more vegetables. I exercise a lot more. I try not to eat after 9:30.

Q: Your appetite was legendary. Are those gluttony days over?

A: Eating as a pleasure is still a part of my life. Eating as a sport has faded away.

Q: This cookbook is different from your seven other cookbooks. Lots of veggie dishes, lots of 30-minute-or-less recipes.

A: This is how Italians eat on a weekday when they want to eat something that is delicious, healthy and not so hard to make. And in fact, there is no fresh pasta [recipe] in the book. It is all dried pasta.

Q: Where will you be eating in Seattle?

A: I am going to eat at Salumi. I really love the fried whole fish with black bean and ginger sauce [at Etta's].

Q: What is the next big thing? The next pork belly?

A: The next big thing will be vegetables.

Q: Because of the eat-local mantra?

A: Exactly. I think the next big thing in people's mind is actually eating with a point of view, eating with an ideology. It is all the things that we should be thinking about but we never had to because we are in the richest country in the world of all time. Now thinking maybe about spending a bit more for an heirloom varietal. Or a specific type of grown thing [that is] completely fertilizer-free. Or eating your meat that has no hormones or antibiotics.

Q: Favorite Seattle restaurant outside of Salumi (his father, Armandino Batali, started Salumi)?

A: Palace [Kitchen] and Elliott's [Oyster House].

Q: Favorite meat at Salumi?

A: I like the agrumi, the citrus-flavored one. It's got all the porky greatness, but yet it has this bright acidity to it because they put all the zests of the orange and lemon in it. It is mind-blowingly delicious.

Q: A favorite recipe Seattleites would enjoy?

A: Cavolo nero [black kale with ricotta].

Q: So I hear you pull $100,000 to appear at food festivals and events.

A: When a casino calls or a big shot hotel calls, they offer the money and you say yes or no. ... I think it's fabulous. I don't understand it. But I don't care. (He laughs.)

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com