Victim of too much samplingAlthough I'm not sure what could possibly prey on something that large, it's fair to say Batali must be a big fan of the Discovery channel.
Mario made a big splash when he premiered on the New York restaurant scene, and has since parlayed his success into TV shows and cookbooks, but is notorious as a hard partier and as being somewhat difficult to work with. I would imagine that especially true in a really narrow kitchen. Bubba takes up a lotta room.
In light of the fact that one can make a lot of enemies in such a competitive industry, Mario decided camouflage would be his best defense - especially since he's too big to get out of his own way. Hell, in a race with the legendary three-toed sloth, the sloth won by a nose. But that's OK. People are willing to wait for him and his culinary wonders.
