Mario Batali is apologizing for insulting the wealthy financial sector that keep his restaurants in business. INSIDE EDITION has the scoop.
Celebrity TV chef Mario Batali is eating humble pie today after enraging many of his wealthiest customers.
Batali compared America's bankers to Hitler and Stalin, prompting furious Wall Street bankers to call for a boycott of his high-priced restaurants.
The uproar started when Batali sat on a Time magazine panel earlier this week.
"The way the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it, into their own hands is as good as Stalin, or Hitler, and the evil guys," said Batali during the panel discussion.
His comment triggered an immediate backlash from bankers, who are among the only people who can afford Batali's sky-high prices.
His Del Posto restaurant in New York has been known to serve one of the most expensive dinners in Manhattan. A meal could cost more than a $1,000.
One banker wrote, "Cancel all reservations at Batali's eateries."
"I hope he chokes on his pasta!" said another.
"I'd rather go to Olive Garden," another wrote.
A banking executive told The New York Times, "The irony is that he has made millions of dollars building a restaurant empire off the backs of Wall Street wealth."
When he appeared on the daily cooking show The Chew Thursday, Batali didn't mention the boycott.
But he tweeted, "I want to apologize for my remarks. It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history."
Now that's what you call eating your words.
