ISBN 10: 0-9799843-0-0

ISBN 13: 978-0-9799843-0-3

Publisher: Little Print Press

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 now lives with her husband Peter and dog Louie V 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.