Talking to Mario Batali

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Customers are not looking for exotic, hot restaurants—now they want comfort, something they can afford. There are still lots of people with disposable income. Our restaurants are still all up compared to last year.

What would you say is a reason to open a restaurant?

The main reason is because you love the business of making food and beverage available to customers. They come in and you treat them like special members of your family or a fan base. It is evident to anybody who talks to me that I love to go to my job and that I am not looking at the clock to see that there are only two more hours until I can go home. I look at the clock and say, I should have gone home two hours ago. You have to love it, or it's a job and then you should do something else, because owning a restaurant is fraught with risk. The first year failure rate is 70%.

Why is the restaurant business such a risky venture?

I'd say it is because most restaurants are usually undercapitalized. What happens is lots of people come over to your house for dinner and they say you should open a restaurant. But opening up a restaurant is so much more than just being a good cook. That is the hard thing for a lot of people to understand: it's about purchasing up the volume without compromising.

For example, there's somebody's Italian aunt who is a great cook. Somebody says we'll back you in a restaurant—it is every mom and pop's dream. They get a critical review and they do one full seating and all of sudden they have twice as many people coming. Suddenly, auntie is tired of trying to figure out how to make more lasagna and she makes compromises, she lets others do the work, and they don't pick it up or don't capture it the way she has and suddenly her great food is lesser food. It happens in no time. There is no time to properly manage things, and the customers recognize that immediately. They come in less and less, and the hot restaurant six months ago is no longer hot. It's not an indictment, but if you don't carefully keep a watch on things, you can go from a really good cook to just O.K.

How have you avoided that fate?

I've not avoided it at all. There are a lot of angry people out there on the blogs masked by anonymity. They are the most vicious people in the world. I've developed a real thick skin, but every time I'm feeling real good, I go on those blogs.

To hear from more renowned chefs on what it takes to start a restaurant, flip through this slide show.

Perman is a staff writer for BusinessWeek in New York.