Rutgers Alum Mario Batali Accused Of Sexual Misconduct

Yet another male celebrity has been accused of sexual harassment — but this one has some pretty strong New Jersey roots.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali is stepping out of the public spotlight after reports surfaced that he groped women, inappropriately touched women who worked either as waitresses or in his kitchens and used strong sexual language to describe women he worked with, according to a report leaked on Eater.com Monday morning. The allegations spanned a period of two decades of Batali working in the food service industry.

It is a little-known fact that Batali attended Rutgers University and graduated from the school in 1982. In fact, he gave the Rutgers commencement speech in 2005.

When he was a college kid, Batali worked as a short-order grill cook at Stuff Yer Face, an extremely well-known college pub and stromboli restaurant on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus. In fact, that job was his first foray into the restaurant world. Batali reportedly loved the New Brunswick college food scene and has on occasion come back to the Rutgers campus to visit. Stuff Yer Face apparently has a candle-lit shrine to him. He talked to NJ Monthly about his love for the Melody Bar, Greasy Tony’s and why the Jersey Shore's way better than the Hamptons (“Beautiful beaches, funnier people”).

According to the Eater.com report, a woman said Batali groped her at a party about 10 years ago in New Orleans. A second woman then said Batali groped her at a party in 2011. One of the women said Batali "accidentally" spilled wine on her shirt and then "Let me help you with that,” as he groped her chest. “He just went to town, and I was so shocked," she recalled. Then, a woman who used to work as a waitress at Po in the West Village, which Batali co-founded, said Batali acted "inappropriately" towards her for two years.

In a statement to Eater, Batali did not deny the claims and offered an apology. Batali also said he is stepping away from the day-to-day operations of his restaurants.

Batali is part of the Batali & Lidia Bastianich Hospitality Group, which hired a private investigator to look into the allegations.

Image credit: Bryan Bedder / Stringer / Getty Images Entertainment