Henry Louis Gates Jr.: What would you like to know about your ancestors? If you could know anything, wave a wand, what would it be?Mario Batali: Why they left the idyllic world of Italy as early as they did. My understanding and I’m not sure of this is I believe we’re 20th Century immigrants and I’m just wondering why you would leave what was perfect?Gates: You’re still romantic and nostalgic about Italy...Italia?

Batali: Oh, all the way.

Narration: Chef and restaurant owner Mario Batali grew up in Washington State. That’s where his great-grandfather Sebastian Batali finally settled after arriving in America at the turn of the century.

Gates: People do not think of Mario Batali as a pioneer of the American west.

Batali: Frontiersman.

Gates: Yeah, maybe they think frontiersman of western Italy.

Batali: Yeah.

Gates: But not western United States. That was a big surprise for me… It’s a little hard to read, but can you make out the names in the red box?

Batali: Oh sure. “Batali, Sebastian.” “Batali, Isola.”

Gates: There they are, your great grandparents Sebastian and Maria Isola.

Batali: It says, Butte, Montana. Kind of says, where were they going? …His or her father. So someone must have been there in their family, that’s wild.

Gates: Five years later, here we see your great grandfather listed as a resident of Butte, Montana in 1905.

Batali: Batali Sebastian, miner, in the Leonard Mine. Gates: I don’t generally associate Italian immigrants with the mining industry, do you?

Batali: No, but I do put them in with the stone working. Maybe there’s some kind of a tie-in there, I’m not really sure.Narration: eager to cash in on the mining boom, Sebastian Batali landed in Meaderville, the vibrant “Little Italy” section of butte, Montana. yet the comforting embrace of his community couldn’t protect Sebastian from the dangerous working conditions down in the mines.

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