The Mario Batali Formula
While channel surfing last week I came across an hour long TV show on the Food Network called Chefography. The episode chronicled the success of Mario Batali and was actually quite interesting. As I watched I became more and more impressed with how far ahead of his time Mario is. There are so many lessons that can learned from his successful formula for any startup business.
The first thing that jumped out at me was his epiphany of simple things. From 1989-1992 Mario apprenticed in a small Italian village that led him to change everything he believed about food. In the documentary he says, “The most significant thing I’m sure I learned while in Italy was less about what to put on the plate and more about what not to put on the plate. The food was so simple it really implied absolute confidence in the ingredients. It was less about the cook’s white noise, what was rattling around in my head, and more about the peas being perfect, the papadelli being perfect and the cheese being perfect”.
You could easily switch out the food references with ’software’ or ‘product’ and get the same effect. It was less about what to put in the software/program/product and more about what not to put in the software/program/product. And he was coming to these conclusions back in 1992. A simplicity formula that would make 37signals proud.
And it still remains at the core of what Mario does. His first cookbook was title Simple Italian Food, 250 recipes containing Mario’s belief in the power of simplicity. The guy really does get it. He’s full of insightful quotes, “If you try to build something for a group of people you will never succeed, so you have to build it for yourself”, sounds a lot like some of the most popular websites. Built for the needs of a few people that caught on with a larger audience…sometimes for a different reason - think myspace, facebook, flickr.
But the most important thing that I took out of watching the show, was the idea to just go out and do it, go out and build it. When typical New York restaurants are built out with million dollar budgets, Mario did his own thing. The guy couldn’t get hired because his food was new, it was revolutionary. As one New York Times critic wrote about his first restaurant Po, “there is no other place like this in New York or in America”. Mario didn’t wait for the perfect opportunity to make his food, he went out did it himself. He launched Po on a $35,000 budget, two waiters, twelve tables and one dishwasher. This is the equivalent of launching a website for $10,000. The point - build it, don’t wait for others to understand, go out and build a prototype, launch a website.
And the final insight, create classics. Don’t get caught up in a trend. How many business pitches think they have a great product because it’s web 2.0? because it has tags? Who cares? If it does, that’s great, but just because you took something already out and there and added tags doesn’t mean it will be a success. Build something that will last.
Mario’s business partner says it best, “Creating a classic in LA is a challenge. Temper that excitement of a new opening with letting people know this restaurant will be here for a long time serving the food they want to eat”. When you build something, when you create something, build something that will last.
Mario’s successful formula has always remained simple, cook simple food and build restaurants that last. And he doesn’t stray from the brand. All of his restaurants have a purpose, a common theme, a common look & feel. Just looking at the logo’s of all his restaurants makes me want to go out and start my own brand. Mario Batali is a New Revolutionary.
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