And Wall Street thought Italian bonds were tough to stomach.
Bankers are fed up with chef Mario Batali after he uncorked a tirade against Wall Streeters, comparing them to brutal dictators Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin.
On Tuesday, Batali said, “So the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys.”
The rotund 51-year-old chef, world renowned for his famed Italian eateries Babbo, Del Posto and Eataly, dished at a Time magazine panel where he was a participant weighing candidates for the magazine’s Person of the Year.
His remarks left a bad taste in the mouths of bankers who took to the Internet — and their ubiquitous Bloomberg terminals — to voice their displeasure.
One Wall Street restaurant owner cum high-yield broker told The Post that Batali is going to face the wrath of Wall Street — the well-heeled constituency that can afford to chow down at his pricey hot spots, including a $300 truffle-tasting menu at Babbo.
“I’ve been to every one of his restaurants but what [Batali] said was just out of line today,” said Michael Misisco, a broker at trading shop Mint Partners, part of BCG Partners.
“Such good food, but never again,” wrote fixed-income broker Michael Wassong at Eurobrokers, commenting on a restaurant forum on Bloomberg.
The Food Network celebrity, known for sporting orange Crocs, shorts and a greasy ponytail, issued an apology yesterday through spokeswoman Pamela Lewy.
“To remove any ambiguity about my appearance at [Tuesday’s] Time Person of the Year panel, I want to apologize for my remarks,” he wrote in an e-mail statement.
Batali wrote, “It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history.”