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From the blood-orange bellinis, a signature aperitif at Babbo, to the traffic-cone orange surgical operating room clogs on his feet, everything about Mario Batali seems larger than life.
The portly, 5-foot, 11-inch celebrity chef with the carrot-orange ponytail bursts onto the scene at Lidia's Kansas City as plates of his signature beef cheek ravioli are served. While Batali strives to cook "like an Italian grandma," he's hip enough to turn what most Americans consider extreme eats _ the guts and less relished extremities such as brain, tongue and cheek _ into chic eats.
"It could have been brisket and our customers wouldn't have known the difference ... but the press got a hold of it and wouldn't let it go," Batali says of the new popularity of organ meats.
The host of the Food Network's hugely popular "Molto Mario" and "Mario Eats Italy," Batali spent a day in Kansas City recently to promote ``The Babbo Cookbook'' (Clarkson Potter, $40), a collection of 150 recipes from Babbo, the New York City restaurant that he co-owns with Joe Bastianich, son of Lidia Bastianich.
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