For Mario Batali, it’s all about the ingredients. More than equipment, technique, recipes, skill or presentation, what one finds at the market (or the back door of one’s ridiculously popular restaurants) should always determine what ends up on the plate. Which is how there came to be a tangle of fresh watercress on the braised short ribs—even though the recipe called for parsley—at the Fourth Annual T.J. Martell Foundation Best Cellars Dinner last Monday night at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel.

Batali was in town last week to serve as the guest celebrity chef for the T.J. Martell Foundation’s dinner, an occasion that brought out every local foodie who could afford the price of admission and every local chef who could figure out a way to share the same kitchen with one of America’s most acclaimed, popular, well-known and frequently seen culinary celebrities. It was the perfect cultural collision: Manhattan chef arrives in Music City to prepare a fancy repast and spends part of his day eating barbecue and visiting our (somewhat lacking) Farmers Market.

Named the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: New York City 2002, Batali is an owner and creative force behind Lupa in the West Village, Esca in the theater district and, most famously, Babbo, named Best New Restaurant of 1998 by the same Beard Foundation. In its fifth year, a prime-time reservation at Babbo, also in the West Village, still requires a call a couple weeks out. Batali and his partners have recently opened Otto, an enoteca and pizzeria on Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street. Even before New York Times critic William Grimes awarded it two stars in his review a few weeks ago, the wait for a table (no reservations accepted) required patrons to have a small snack before leaving home, just to hold them over. Though his focus recently has been on opening Otto (which means “eight” in Italian), the chef says he spends most of his time at Babbo. “They keep a little space for me there,” he says with a sly grin. “My heart and spirit are definitely at Babbo.”

Batali is also the author of three cookbooks, including The Babbo Cookbook, named one of last year’s 10 best by Newsweek. In between, the ebullient, irrepressible, kinetically charged Batali—he of the red beard and ponytail, cargo shorts and orange high-top sneakers—hosts the daily program Molto Mario (which translates as “More Mario”) on the Food Network, and has just completed a season of Mario Eats Italy. That will be followed up next season by Mario Eats America.

The T.J. Martell Best Cellars Dinner is a spectacular occasion in which Nashville’s most serious wine collectors, the country’s best chefs and a host of country music celebrities come together for an unforgettable evening of wining and dining (and raising money for cancer, leukemia and AIDS research). Past gilded toque-wearers have been Dean Fearing of The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Charlie Trotter of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and Norman Van Acken of Norman’s in Coral Gables, Fla.

The chef is recruited by one of Nashville’s most devoted oenophiles and epicures, music business exec Billy Ray Hearn. Hearn also puts together the generous corps of cellar owners, who contribute the course-by-course wines for the table they are hosting that evening. Co-chair Joe Galante, RCA Label Group chairman, assembles the star power, which this year included Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Terri Clark.

To allow time to choose the wines, Batali had to devise a menu about a month in advance of the dinner. The chef thus had to forgo his of-the-minute shopping-cooking MO, which typically allows him to find the best and freshest ingredients possible. “When it comes to cooking, when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided,” he asserts. “You want really good ingredients, and every little bit adds up.”

Despite this hitch, the Best Cellars menu was certainly seasonal, relying on product readily available in the fresh-produce limbo of early March. Not knowing Nashville well—this being only his second visit here—and needing to ensure the quality and execution of the five-course menu, Batali had his ingredients shipped here to coincide with his arrival on Sunday, March 10. He was accompanied by several of his restaurants’ chefs, including the chef/owner of Esca, David Pasternack, and writer Bill Buford, who is working on a book about Batali by indenturing himself as a worker in the chef’s kitchens.

The crew unpacked that afternoon, got familiar with the Loews kitchen and began organizing. That night, they dined with Hearn and Tom Black at F. Scott’s, where executive chef Jason McConnell and his culinary team composed a multi-course meal served family style, with each chef contributing a dish.

The following morning, prep work began in earnest. When Batali discovered he had no parsley for the horseradish gremolata that was to accompany the braised short ribs entrée, he and Hearn took a drive over to the Farmers Market. Alas and alack, though there was enough curly parsley to resod Centennial Park, there was not one bunch of flat leaf parsley—the only type Batali uses. Instead, at one of the stalls inside, Batali saw an employee open a newly arrived box of watercress. Negotiations ensued, and $15 later, the chef hoisted the box up to one shoulder; voilà, the parsley was now watercress.

Lunch for the crew was barbecue from Joe’s on Clarksville Highway—pulled pork, ribs, chicken, pickles, slaw and, of course, two loaves of white bread, which somewhat startled the gang from New York, who had all gathered ’round the foam containers in their chef’s whites. A sauce-tasting precipitated a discussion on how it was made, and the ’cue won a thumbs-up, with a note on how difficult it is to find good barbecue in the Big Apple.

By 2 p.m., several of Nashville’s best chefs were hunkered down at the prep tables, sorting and picking watercress, cutting fresh sheets of pasta, zesting and squeezing lemons. Later, as cooking, expediting and plating time approached, they were joined by more food professionals, all rounded up by Cathy Lewis, the founder and former owner of Nick of Thyme in Brentwood.

By 7:15, the first wines were being uncorked and the antipasto plates were set on the table. Batali has an oft-stated affection for the pig—every part of the pig—and sure enough, the starter was coppa: cured, braised, dried and thinly sliced rounds of pork loin with rucola (Italian for arugula), Pecorino and 50-year-old balsamico. Next came three crooked squares of baccala (salt cod) ravioli with marjoram and scallions. The pasta course was orecchiette in a hearty ragù of fennel sausage and collards. The main course was the braised short ribs with saffron-scallion orzo. In a when-in-Rome move, dessert was that traditional Southern fave, chocolate puddin’, made Italian-style with pinenuts and Sambuca whipped cream.

A post-meal standing ovation for the chef and his team unfortunately did not persuade Batali to consider opening a Nashville outpost of Babbo. Too bad. Molto Mario’s Bubba has such a nice ring to it.