Mario Batali’s Favorite Golf Course Is Just 'a Shack and a Track'

Any given week during the summer, Mario Batali will be playing a round of golf. The chef, whose restaurants include Babbo, Del Posto, Lupa, Bar Jamón, Esca, and the Italian-food supermarket destination Eataly, estimates that he will play 45 rounds over the summer.

“One of the things about my job is that I spend a lot of time in small, hot rooms surrounded by a lot of people,” Batali said by phone. “For me, going out on the golf course is a remarkable, spiritual, cleansing thing.”