REVIEWS

Fern Esposito ran a very successful dining establishment in New Jersey that received much praise and a rating of excellent from the New York Times. She sold it in 2004 and lives with her husband Peter in New Jersey. The Door Whore: Confessions of a Restaurant Diva is her first book.
What does a door whore mean to you? If you are not too familiar with the lingo, you might misinterpret it as quite something else! It means, in the restaurant business, a woman who greets you upon entering the dining establishment.

In this tale, door whore and owner and brains behind the Italian restaurant Sentimento, Ivy talks us through her story. She begins with saying how she decorated the restaurant to her liking, even down to putting salt and pepper at each table for the customers. We then learn about her recent staff - like moody executive chef Christopher Miller who is prone to childish tantrums and could win hands down in a swearing competition. His third wife is also by no means a saint, choosing to treat Ivy's fine establishment as a creche for the kids. Would you accept that if you owned a much- praised Italian restaurant?

And that is not all the trouble Christopher brings with him. Sometimes he'd fly off the handle cursing and disrespecting everyone. This would often escalate into a fight with one of the other members of staff. Certainly not very mature behaviour for an adult!
However when he'd gone too far, Christopher would say he didn't mean to cause offence by his actions and cruel choice of words. Sadly this was a scenario that was played out time after time over the years. 
On some of the many times I came across one of the arguments in this book I would think of Gordon Ramsay's TV series ¦talk about too many chefs! Yet it had a really comical side too that promises to make you laugh. And let's face, it does make for compulsive reading.
I loved this book and Ivy's roller-coaster life as the owner of Sentimento. I think if you have ever visited an establishment like this one or just like to read the funny yet dramatic side of kitchen life, this is certainly the book for you. I couldn't put it down betweens fits of laughter and tears. Truly hot stuff! Try this and I'm sure you will find it hard to put down.

I met Fern Esposito for a column I used to write four years ago. The column was called Around Town and it profiled people who had made a difference, who stood out in the crowd, faces that one would rarely forget.

In her book, The Door Whore, which is a work of fiction as Fern said when we met, she draws on her personal experience at Sogno and weaves a monologue of a woman's journey into a man's world: the business of running a successful restaurant.

At the beginning of her book she outlines her struggle, when she explains that the title of her book is a common restaurant lingo for an attractive female person who greets you at the door. I paused. I recalled a number of my favorite haunts, and to my surprise, barring my infrequent ventures into Indian restaurants in New Jersey or New York, I have been always greeted by a very attractive and lovely lady at the door who asked me: "A table for two?"



To my further surprise, as pleasant as those first encounters were, I was shocked to discover that I never noticed them, the door whores. They were pretty but faceless. I remembered and accepted the fact that I would be welcomed by a woman without even noticing it as a trend.

And I am not an activist, my friends would even hesitate to call me a feminist, but I felt quite upset that I was party to a thought process that categorized femininity as part of restaurant decor, as part of the formula for success, instead of being the brains behind it.



That's what compelled me to read on. It was a true account of a woman's day-to-day encounter with challenges in man's world. From winning the argument at home to winning the hearts of her customer's, Fern's lead protagonist, Ivy Zingara, deals with every roadblock with grace and persistence. For example, in the second chapter, Ivy is faced with workmen who don't want to take instructions from her, having her to rely on her husband to deal with them.

Fern writes: "Some of them just ignored me while others did spiteful things in an attempt to aggravate and upset me. One worker seemed to knock off his jollies by defecating in all three of the brand new toilets and never flushing, while others enjoyed putting out their cigarettes on the newly laid ceramic tile floor despite the numerous 'NO SMOKING' signs."

Equally interesting is the exchange that follows with the inspector who snubs her and storms out. 



The book is truly the tale of the agony and ecstasy of the ultimate door whore as the author categorizes her lead character. It pens with honest accuracy the plots and sub-plots that female authority evokes. It deals with the practicality of wise business practices when dealing with a staff situation that attempts to victimize the owner. Above all, it delightfully paints the quirks and characters of the American suburb.

You have to put your heart and soul into it, you have to do it well if you want to do it at all, Fern said. And she did. Her book is as easy to read and relate to as is she herself.