BOSTON — The celebrity chef Mario Batali stepped into a courtroom crowded with reporters on Friday morning and entered a plea of not guilty to indecent assault and battery of a woman he met in a bar here two years ago.
The woman, who had long been a fan of Mr. Batali’s, told the Boston police last June that what she intended as a selfie session with the chef in March 2017 turned into an assault when he grabbed her breasts, buttocks and groin, forcibly kissed her mouth and cheeks, and suggested they head to his nearby hotel. The woman is about 30 years younger than the chef, who is now 58.
Although several chefs and restaurant owners have been accused of sexual harassment and abuse since the #MeToo movement spread into the world of restaurants and hospitality in the fall of 2017, Mr. Batali is the only one so far to face criminal charges. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and be required to register as a sex offender.
Mr. Batali arrived at Boston Municipal Court on Friday looking much trimmer than before, wearing a blazer, no tie and casual trousers. He had forgone his signature orange Crocs for athletic shoes accented in orange. He used a back entrance, walked into the courtroom and immediately headed into a conference room before returning to the courtroom with his lawyer.
Mr. Batali was allowed to remain free without bail on the condition that he stay away from the woman who accused him. His next pretrial hearing was set for July 12. Asked by the judge if he understood that he would not need to appear at the case’s next court date, Mr. Batali answered, “Yes” in a near-whisper. It was the only thing he said during the hearing, which lasted less than five minutes.
The criminal complaint was filed last month, and mirrored the narrative in a civil suit brought against Mr. Batali by the woman, Natali Tene, 29, in August 2018. Three months before she sued, Ms. Tene told the food website Eater that she had been having dinner and drinks at Towne Stove and Spirits, a bar in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston that has since closed, when she spotted Mr. Batali and took a photograph of him with her phone.
He called her over, suggested they take a selfie, and then proceeded to grope and kiss her, according to her lawsuit and the criminal complaint. Ms. Tene is seeking money damages for emotional distress, anxiety and self-doubt she said she suffered because of the encounter. She was not in the courtroom on Friday.
The two people listed as witnesses on the criminal complaint, reached by telephone on Thursday, said they were surprised that their names had been included in the documents, and declined to comment. One, a friend who was having a drink with Ms. Tene that night, said he had been deposed for the lawsuit, and had repeated his version of events to the police.
Through a lawyer, Mr. Batali denied the accounts in both the civil and criminal complaints. “The charges, brought by the same individual without any new basis, are without merit,” the lawyer, Anthony E. Fuller, said in a statement to The New York Times. “He intends to fight the allegations vigorously and we expect the outcome to fully vindicate Mr. Batali.”
Mr. Batali is one of many chefs and restaurateurs hit by accusations of sexual assault and harassment in the restaurant industry that began tumbling out in the fall of 2017 in cities like San Francisco, New York and New Orleans.
As more women came forward to tell their stories, some of these men either stepped away from direct oversight of their businesses, saw the size of their empires shrink or found themselves the subject of investigations and lawsuits.
The New York Police Department investigated three sexual assault complaints against Mr. Batali, but a department official confirmed in January that it had closed those investigations because of a lack of evidence and limits imposed by the statute of limitations.
Mr. Batali’s behavior first came to public light in December 2017 when four women told Eater that he had touched them inappropriately as part of a pattern of behavior they and others said spanned at least two decades.
Other accounts of Mr. Batali’s behavior were revealed in a Times article the next day; several women described incidents of sexual harassment and assault at the Spotted Pig, a favorite Manhattan playground of Mr. Batali’s and a number of other well-known chefs, musicians and sports stars.
A dozen employees described incidents in which the owner, Ken Friedman, 56, groped them in public, forcibly touched them in private as he demanded sex or made text requests for nude pictures or group sex. Mr. Batali was an investor in the restaurant and a regular, attending after-hours parties that included public sex and nudity. One server said the staff had nicknamed him “the Red Menace.”
Mr. Batali almost immediately stepped away from the daily operations of his businesses, including several high-powered restaurants in New York and Las Vegas, as well as his job as a host of the ABC daytime show “The Chew.”
He quickly issued an apology in which he did not acknowledge specific incidents but conceded that “much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses.”
He later sent a newsletter to fans, saying “I will work every day to regain your respect and trust” and included a recipe for cinnamon rolls that was widely mocked.
Mr. Batali retreated to his home in Northport, Mich. He began trying to repair the damage to his family (Mr. Batali and his wife, Susi Cahn, have two sons) and, for a time, explored the possibility of finding a way back into the food business. Much of his focus was holding on to part of the business he had built with Joe Bastianich, who for 20 years was his partner in the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group.
That effort ended in March, when the group bought out Mr. Batali’s stake in the business, leaving the chef without a restaurant.
Kim Severson reported from Atlanta, and Ben Berke from Boston.
