America's Pasta Pusher.(Batali, Mario)(Interview)

Mario Batali is the latest celebrity chef to capture Americans' hearts and stomachs. The Seattle native owns and operates three successful Italian restaurants in New York, hosts two television cooking shows and is the author of three cookbooks about Italian culture and cuisine. Recently, he graced the cover of Gourmet magazine--having launched a new line of pasta sauces--and is planning a new Manhattan pizzeria that is scheduled to open in December. NEWSWEEK's Julie Scelfo spoke to Batali about why Americans have become so infatuated with Italian culture and cuisine. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why are Americans so interested in Italian culture? Why not Belgian or Czech?

Batali: Not to insult those countries, but aside from a couple of things from Belgium or Czechoslovakia, their culture is not exported here. We don't even know what they do. Italians have made it their business to export Italian culture, from spaghetti, to design, to poster art, to wine and soft drinks. If you open a bar in the U.S., an Italian coffee company will give you the coffee machine. They'll give you the coffee cups with the logo, they'll give you the tray to carry the coffee on. They're just really good at marketing themselves and creating brand recognition.

Do you think Americans' eating habits are changing?

Absolutely, Americans have become the most sophisticated eating crowd in the world. We know about cooking, we know about ingredients and we have more access to ingredients than anybody else, from all over the world. How many French dot-coms do you know of that want to import 10 different kinds of honey from America? I know a hundred American dot- coms that want to import 10 different kinds of honey and salt from France.

Are American restaurants on par now with the best restaurants of Europe?

Oh, absolutely. American cooking has discovered that it doesn't have to apologize for being American. And as opposed to trying to import ingredients to make a dish like the one you had in the south of France or in western Italy, people are realizing they can use ingredients that we have locally. So we're not buying Dover sole anymore, we're using fluke from [New York's] Long Island Sound, which is fresher and cheaper. Then when you treat it in the Italian style, you get things which actually feel and taste more Italian, even though you're not using any ingredients from Italy. Because the reason it tastes so good in Italy is because it was ...