Never did enjoy a meal at Mario Batali’s joints-both Otto in NYC and Mozza in LA disappoint big time-but his TV persona keeps the energy up, his cookbooks are worth their weight in gold (just owning one will get you some) and now he’s won our admiration for his convictions and sincerity, as he recently spoke out against the banksters. Even though these crooks are his customers, not blinking at $1,126 dinner for two at Batali’s NYC eatery Del Posto, he ain’t afraid to call them out. The guy has a pair. Read on to see what he dropped on the banksters:

“I would have to say that who has had the largest effect on the whole planet without us really paying attention across the board and everywhere is the entire banking industry and their disregard for the people that  they’re supposed to be working for….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…They’re not heroes, but they are people that had a really huge effect on the way the world is operating.” 

Now the guys that do enjoy Batali’s restaurant meals got the chutzpah to turn on him. The perpetrators of the Great American Stick Up  who fuel their greedy guts expensing $40 plates of pasta washed down with $350 bottles of Barolo, all on the taxpayers dime, are taking their appetites elsewhere, according to Forbes journo Jeff Bercovici who broke this story. Now no mobster would walk out on a bowl of pasta e fagioli because you called him out; they don’t hide behind civilized suits and pretend they’re honest businessmen, rather they take credit for their dirty work.