Before the regulars even sat at their tables, pizza maker and restaurant cook Giovanni “Johnny” Esposito had their favorite dishes half ready, family and fans said.
“I already started making it when I saw you park,” he would tell amazed customers at the family business started by his father, Mike’s Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria in Amityville.
His kitchen was a place where patrons hung around talking to him as he made the food, whether it was discussing the Yankees, his favorite team, getting advice or pouring their complaints out, to which the cook might reply with a strong word to show he was on their side, those who knew him said. When he had time to bring orders to the table, he would give his customers extra food even if he didn’t know them. One favorite line to friends was, “Eat up and shut up,” they said, and when he laughed, it sounded almost like a high-pitched horse neigh.
“He made you feel like you were at home all the time,” said best friend Charlie Lupo. “It’s almost like Johnny lived to make other people happy.”
Esposito died at age 55 of diabetes-related kidney failure on July 27, taking some of his secret recipes with him, his family said. The Copiague resident had also worked at a Marriott hotel grilling station.
He cooked with his soul, family members said. He wasn’t afraid to fuse global ingredients, like Asian sauces, in his daily specials, but no one knew because they still tasted so Italian, family members said. His home garden was crowded with vegetables and trees, they said, and if he could, he would put a favorite food, mushrooms, in everything.
People talked about one of his signature dishes, called Fusilli Pavarotti, said his brother Michael Esposito, of Islip. Instead of regular heavy cream, he would use the thicker Italian cream called panna, which delivered a more umami taste.
“People didn’t understand why it was so good,” Esposito said. “Johnny took the basics that everybody did and put it on steroids. Johnny always had something up his sleeve that he never told people about and those things went with him.”
He was a happy-go-lucky guy, traveling to the Bronx to see Yankee games on his day off, bowling with a team and just spreading his cheer, they said.
He was also the go-to guy for help, his brother Patrizio Esposito, of Babylon, said in recalling his college days: “If I needed $20 for a book and I was down and I didn’t have it — and this was before Venmo and anything electronic — he would go and find some place to wire transfer money so I could have it immediately.”
The foodie had always known his career would be in the kitchen, family members said, and he even kept dozens of recipes from his middle school economics class.
The cook became more introspective about his passion with the birth of his daughter, Alexis Pasie, of Massapequa, his brother said.
He wanted to pass his love of food from his parents, immigrants from Naples, Italy, to the younger generations so he gathered the extended family once a year to make tomato sauce, his siblings said.
“He took it a lot more seriously. … This is who we are and we carry on the tradition,” Patrizio Esposito said.
He was supposed to be on a restricted diet after being diagnosed with diabetes 12 years ago, yet he couldn’t stop eating pasta, loved ones said. Eventually, part of one leg had to be amputated.
“Johnny loved food so much,” Michael Esposito said, “but it kind of killed him.”
But Esposito had maintained a sort of customer service demeanor during his illness, even for family and close friends. He delayed telling them his kidneys were shutting down because he didn’t want to burden anyone, family members said.
“He was selfless,” Patrizio Esposito said. “It always boiled down to making sure others were happy.”
Besides his two brothers and daughter, he is survived by his mother, Maria Scotto Cesare, of Copiague; sister, Tina Bautista, of Copiague; and brother Anthony Esposito, of Charleston, South Carolina.
A Mass was celebrated Aug. 4 at The Church of St. Martin of Tours in Amityville, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.
Dining and Cooking