This is not what celebrity chefs Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich, along with her restaurateur son, expected when they opened Del Posto, New York's latest culinary hotspot. There have been mixed reviews, carping about high prices and a nasty dispute with the landlord.

"Overbuilt, over-hyped - and at risk of just being plain over," The New York Post wrote this week about Del Posto and a neighboring restaurant of equal fame, Morimoto. The paper concluded the "two places opened badly out of tune."

The problems Del Posto has endured since it opened in December underscore just how unforgiving the restaurant business can be - even for Batali and Bastianich, two of TV's best-known chefs and most successful restaurateurs.

For Batali, Bastianich and her son, Joseph, Del Posto is one of the biggest bets of their careers, a nearly $12 million gamble on what could be the most ambitious Italian restaurant in the country. "I'm not going to tell anybody, but of course I'm worried," Batali said in an interview. "I'm working every hour of every day. This is my main event."

Batali, known for his flowing red hair and orange clogs, is a star on the Food Network, where he hosts two popular shows. He and Joseph Bastianich have created such New York City restaurants as Babbo, Lupa and Otto that put a contemporary twist on Old World food at relatively reasonable prices. Lidia Bastianich has achieved fame through her New York restaurants and popular cookbooks and as the host of public television's "Lidia's Family Table." The matriarch of Italian cooking in America, she has also branched out, bringing her traditional Italian cucina to Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

Source: New York Daily News

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