The man in orange, Mario Batali, is busy these days. Not only is he promoting his new book, Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home, he's hocking his own line of cooking tools, called The Italian Kitchen.
The line includes cast-iron cookware, silicone spatulas, specialty gadgets and knives, stainless serving tools, wood tools and a line of "Italian Stitch" ceramics. Most items come in Espresso (read: brown) and Persimmon Orange, Batali's trademark hue. The prices seem reasonable to us, for specialty, celebrity-label cook tools. In terms of good-quality wooden spoons and such, you can do better with the plain-wrap variety available at any cookshop.
We ran across the line at Sur La Table where it litters the entire front of the store in all its orange and brown glory, complementing the assortment of hokey Halloween cooking accessories. You can also find it online at Italian Kitchen.
So we may not be re-stocking our kitchen with Mario's new line, but we're not giving up on him by any means. We think his classic cookbook, The Babbo Cookbook is still one of the best-used on our shelf, and besides, we sure do like a man who wears orange.
*Batali will be appearing at the Sur La Table in SoHo (75 Spring Street @ Crosby Street) Wednesday, October 26th to sign his new book and launch The Italian Kitchen. Space is limited, so sign up.
PS. If you are a reader of these posts, we would love your opinion on the small subject. We can't decide on the name for this column for when it becomes a separate site devoted to the joy of cooking in the city later this month.
While his stuff looks great, you can get orange at any number of cheaper outlets. Target, for one.
Voted for AT: The Kitchen -- by celebrating the room, we naturally celebrate all that occurs in there!
my first choice would be kitchen therapy, if this is not possible then apartment therapy kitchen.
mario batali is the best Chef i ever seen...his so natural.... well keep up the good work and maybe in the near future i can go and visit your restaurants their in america.........chao.......