The celebrity chef lineups for the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore has been revealed and they are taking no chances at the $5 billion resort, bringing out some of the world's culinary big guns. The resort will feature restaurants by famous chefs from around the world. The six chefs announced include Mario Batali (New York), Daniel Boulud (New York), Wolfgang Puck (Los Angeles), Santi Santamaria (Barcelona), Guy Savoy (Paris) and Tetsuya Wakuda (Sydney). Chefs Santi Santamaria, Guy Savoy and Tetsuya Wakuda will have their restaurants on the mezzanine layer of the casino while Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud and Wolfgang Puck will have signature restaurants situated near Marina Bay Sands Theatres. Each of the six chefs is personally involved in the concepts, menus, and interior design of the six different restaurants.

When completed, Marina Bay Sands will feature have approximately 2,500 luxury hotel rooms, the rooftop Sands SkyPark, a museum, Las Vegas- style gaming, the Paiza Club for premium players, theatres, entertainment, an outdoor event plaza, and shopping and dining venues. In a press release, Batali calls the resort "the most exciting project I have ever been involved with" but the most philosophical quotes come from the European chefs. Santi Santamaria ponders the possibilities of "culinary poetry" saying he wants his cuisine to "delight the senses and awaken emotional memories with a cuisine of wisdom." Guy Savoy expresses a similar view saying that" cuisine is the art of instantaneously turning produce suffused with history into happiness." They sound like perfect fits for a city that prides itself on the quality and infinite variety of its food.

[via NY Daily News]

Red-haired chef Mario Batali recently closed his seafood restaurant, The John Dory, but the bills linger on. The NY Daily News reports that Batali and his business partner Joe Bastianich (son of TV chef Lidia Bastianich) are on the hook for nearly $75,000. A lawsuit says that they owe $45,000 in rent as well as other expenses including $15,000 for chilled water. The John Dory was located next to Batali's NYC restaurant Del Posto but it closed on August 29 after only being in business for nine months. Bastianich has said that the bills will be paid soon. This appears to be an isolated episode and not an indication of cracks in the Batali empire which includes Babbo and other restaurants in New York City as well as outposts in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Is there a market for celebrity restaurant grease? Further makes hand soap and candles from waste grease of some of Los Angeles's finest restaurants. The business began when Marshall Dostal began using restaurant grease and converting it to biofuel for his car. His wife Megan, a former event planner for Vogue Magazine, saw the drums of glycerin, a byproduct of the process and a business was born. Further products use an aromatic scent of bergamot, olive and exotic grasses. The Further candle is made from purified waste grease from Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton's delicious Mozza restaurant and sells for $24. I love this idea, I think there could be a whole line of signature candles for various restaurants.

Chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Mario Batali took a turn away from the Italian fare he is famous for at an event recently to benefit his new charity, The Mario Batali Foundation at the Food and WIne Festival in Aspen. Batali prepared a gigantic batch of machaca for his friends, family and fellow chefs. The Mario Batali Foundation has a mission to educate and empower children with a goal of making sure that all children are well read, well fed and well cared for. Also on Batali's board is his longtime friend, musician Michael Stipe.

Batali's machaca is a little more labor-intensive than your standard taco meat but definitely worth the effort. For the event Batali used Strauss Meadow Reserve veal from Allen Brothers. The meat was marinated in a mixture of Worcestershire, lime juice, garlic, chipotle, cumin and black pepper overnight. After browning, onions, peppers and herbs are added. The meat is cooked for two hours until falling apart, shredded, and returned to the liquid. Then the mixture is slowly cooked down until the meat is close to dry. The result can be used in tacos, flauta and just about any other Mexican preparation. The complete recipe is after the jump.

Thanks to celebrity chefs like Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich, it's hard to come across a restaurant review these days that doesn't mention, if not wax poetic about, the appeal of cured pork. The word salumi has entered the lexicon. (For the uninitiated, it's an umbrella term meaning Italian-style cured meats--not to be confused with salami.) How can we home cooks tap into this rich culinary vein? Sure, in upscale neighborhoods specialty food stores abound. But an even better way to get started is to check out the offerings from La Quercia, a family-owned salumi maker in Iowa that supplies scores of restaurants and shops across the country and sells its products online at www.laquercia.us. (The Hawkeye State might seem an odd source of prosciutto and lardo, but since Iowa is the nation's largest producer of pork, it sort of makes sense.)

La Quercia, whose products are nitrate-free and made exclusively from the meat of free-range pigs, makes several types of prosciutto plus other delicacies such as pancetta, speck and coppa. But it's their guanciale that instantly won me over after I bought it at my local Fairway market in New York City.

Guanciale (gwan-CHA-leh) is salt-cured and unsmoked pig jowl. Ask any Italophile worth her olive oil, and she'll tell you it's the key ingredient in two classic pasta sauces, carbonara and all'amatriciana. The latter is less widely known. It's fashioned from tomatoes, onion, garlic, guanciale and a pinch of red pepper and topped with pecorino cheese. I, for one, can't make it often enough. Here's a story about the dish and a surefire recipe, courtesy of Florence Fabricant of The New York Times.

A magician, mixologist and chef Mario Batali are combining for a new type of event. The Magic, Martinis and Mario event the first of which is taking place on September 18 at Del Posto, Batali's restaurant in New York, offers more than just a dinner. Mixologist and Fine Living Network star, Tony Abou-Ganim will design custom cocktails for this special evening and teach diners how to recreate them at home. Also during the cocktail hour, entertainer Billy Harris will show sleight-of-hand magic tricks.

Each of the four courses of the Italian meal will be introduced by Batali and the dishes will be paired with wines from LaMozza, Mario's own vineyard in Tuscany, as well as the Friuli Bastianich vineyard. After the meal Billy Harris will perform his stage show.

Guests will receive gift bag that includes a copy of Mario's latest cookbook, Italian Grill, Tony Aboau-Ganim's most recent DVD, Cocktail 101, samples of 10 Cane Run, playing cards and a ticket to the raffle to win an Ernst Benz Mario Batali wristwatch. Both Mario and Tony will be available to sign books and DVDs at the end of the festivities.

The tickets are $1,500 per seat and limited to 130 guests. $100 of the price will go to the EarthLab Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization providing functional outreach and reverse research and educational efforts in part through EarthLab.com. A new online segment at EarthLab.com entitled Food & Mario Batali shows how to make better food related choices for the environment.

First he had the cookware line, then he got the shoes, now he's scored his own watch. Chef Mario Batali has made quite a sideline out of his trademark orange color. His latest adventure is a partnership with Swiss watch brand Ernst Benz to create a limited-edition watch that benefits hunger awareness. The Mario Batali Limited Edition Ernst Benz Great Circle Automatic comes in three sizes, 36 mm, 40mm and the Batali-sized 47mm. The watch is, of course, decorated with accents in Batali's signature color, orange. Each size is limited and numbered to 250 and proceeds from the series will be donated to The Food Bank for New York City. A picture of the watch on Mario's wrist is after the jump.

[via EuropaStar]

A mere 15 months after opening the midtown Bistro, Mario Batali has put his Bistro du Vent on the market. Though it is grossing over $2.1 million per year, the scandal caused last August by some overly amorous employees and the so-so location are not making the restaurant worth Batali's continued time. The restaurant is approximately 2,000 square feet and seats 80 indoors with a 24 seat sidewalk cafe space, and an all new first-class turn-key installation by Mario Batali. Apparently, the two-star restaurant is unlikely to retain its chef past the sale date. There are 12 months remaining on the current lease at $13,500 per month. The asking price is $400,000.