Score one for Mario Batali in his feud with fellow celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
Batali says the prickly Brit star has agreed to give up on using the name The Spotted Pig for a London eatery — amid outcry that he had swiped it from Batali and his partners.
“It didn’t make him look great,” Batali said of Ramsay’s recent trademarking of the name in the UK.
“I don’t think it was an intentional shot across the bow by Gordon,” Batali told the Eater Vegas blog. “His team is just [trying] to build businesses. There’s got to be a thousand other animals they could have chosen besides The Spotted Pig. A striped minx, for example.”
Ramsay sparked Twitter outrage from fellow chefs, including Anthony Bourdain, when he grabbed the UK rights to the name — because Batali and partners Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield have operated the Michelin-rated The Spotted Pig in the West Village since 1994.
“He’s doing the right thing,” Batali said of Ramsay. “It was like ‘Whoops, pal,’ not, ‘F–k you.’ ”
Batali and Ramsay — who calls Batali “Fanta Pants” presumably because of his penchant for wearing orange — have been trading barbs for years.
But Ramsay told London’s Daily Mail he didn’t take the “pig” name out of spite.
“We have a bit of a banter, and I think it’s the same in sports. You know, whether it’s [soccer teams] Man City and Man United, or whether it’s boxers, you’ve got to keep up that competitive spirit.
“Is it malicious? No.”