Wednesday 21 September 2022 03:44 PM Ex-Mario Batali staffer fears celebrity chef drugged and sexually assaulted her ... trends now

A former Mario Batali employee has come forward to accuse the disgraced celebrity chef of raping her in the VIP room of his Spotted Pig restaurant while she was drugged and unconscious.

Eva DeVirglis says Batali left her with bruised ribs and abrasions following the 2005 incident at the Manhattan restaurant.  

DeVirgilis, now 43, was a reservations manager at Batali's flagship Greenwich Village restaurant Babbo, when the celebrity chef invited her to a late night gathering at the Spotted Pig - another NYC hotspot where Batali was an investor. 

She says she was frightened to arrive to find herself alone with Batali, who was toting a bottle of prosecco.  

That night DeVirgilis was assaulted while unconscious and woke up the next morning still in the restaurant, she says. She went to hospital, and a rape examination was performed.

But DeVirgilis declined to allow the kit to be passed to police, fearing that coming out against a powerful industry figure could ruin her burgeoning career. A nurse, however, told her that it looked as if someone had pried her legs open.

New York state laws give rape accusers the right to decide whether or not hospital sexual assault examination results are passed to police.  

This is not the first time DeVirgilis has discussed her encounter with Batali.

She initially shared part of her story with 60 Minutes in 2018, though her face was obscured and her identity kept anonymous. 

Now, however, she is ready to come forward publicly. And the public will see much more of DeVirgilis and hear her story in the forthcoming Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef, a documentary that premiers on Discovery+ this Thursday.