Three sexual-harassment lawsuits against Unapologetic Foods \u2014 the operators of Semma, New York City\u2019s only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant \u2014 are getting attention after the spouse of one of the plaintiffs posted a TikTok video discussing his wife\u2019s employment experience at the West Village restaurant.<\/p>\n
Tessa Tookes, Charlotte Swett, and Nina Zhuo filed separate lawsuits on July 27, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Unapologetic Foods and Tapestry Management, the LLC that operates Semma. The complaints allege sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment conduct involving Santo Pesantez, who was the director of operations for Unapologetic Foods at the time, and, according to the lawsuits, an interim manager at Semma. Eater has reached out to the plaintiffs\u2019 lawyer at Phillips & Associates for more information.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Unapologetic Foods says Pesantez was fired earlier this year after the three women reported him to human resources. The company\u2019s attorney declined to comment during active litigation. \u201cWe at Unapologetic Foods do not tolerate any type of harassment or discrimination in our restaurants,\u201d the spokesperson wrote. \u201cWe categorically deny the allegations and will defend against these claims in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joey Kirchner, who is married to Tookes, is the sole speaker in the TikTok video posted on the couple\u2019s @joeyandtessa account. Kirchner does not name Semma in the video, but several details he recounts \u2014 including an allegation that a manager ordered Tookes an Uber that initially headed toward his own neighborhood \u2014 track with allegations in Tookes\u2019s federal complaint. <\/p>\n
Kirchner says in the video that the unresolved lawsuit has been \u201changing over\u201d the couple while the restaurant continues to receive accolades, and he returns repeatedly to what he sees as a larger problem with sexual harassment in restaurants. Tookes appears briefly at the end but does not speak.<\/p>\n
Semma opened in 2021 and has become one of the city\u2019s most acclaimed restaurants. In addition to its Michelin star, chef Vijay Kumar won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State in 2025.<\/p>\n
Unapologetic Foods has been one of New York\u2019s most influential restaurant groups of the past decade, helping broaden the city\u2019s understanding of regional South Asian cooking through pioneering Dhamaka on the Lower East Side, Masalawala & Sons in Brooklyn, the relocated Adda, and Filipino Naks, among others.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits name Unapologetic Foods and Tapestry Management as defendants, not Pesantez personally, but much of the alleged misconduct involves him and the supervisory authority the women say he exercised over employees.<\/p>\n
Tookes alleges that Pesantez began pursuing her during the hiring process. According to her complaint, during an observation shift the night after her interview, he took her to dinner, repeatedly encouraged her to drink alcohol, introduced sexual subjects into their conversation, and kissed her cheek without her consent.<\/p>\n
Her lawsuit also includes the allegation Kirchner highlights in the TikTok video: Tookes says Pesantez offered to order her an Uber home, but after she got into the car, she realized it was traveling away from her home. According to the complaint, Pesantez called and said he had accidentally added a stop near his own home to the trip.<\/p>\n
In Swett\u2019s lawsuit, she alleges that Pesantez pressured her to go drinking with him after work, brought her to a strip club, made sexual comments, and engaged in unwanted physical contact. Her complaint also alleges that, after she reported his behavior to a supervisor, Pesantez interfered with her efforts to be promoted.<\/p>\n
Zhuo\u2019s lawsuit alleges that Pesantez repeatedly made comments about her appearance, weight, and age, and eventually engaged in unwanted physical contact. Her complaint also alleges racially charged conversations involving the term \u201cyellow fever\u201d and sexual stereotypes about Asian women.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits contain another set of allegations involving Unapologetic Foods\u2019 security cameras and customer information. According to the complaints, Pesantez used security-camera feeds to watch women he found attractive. Zhuo\u2019s complaint alleges that while actress Kate Hudson was dining at Adda, Pesantez approached Zhuo and Tookes at Semma\u2019s host stand and showed them live security footage of Hudson\u2019s table on his phone.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits further allege that Pesantez used restaurant reservation information to keep track of certain customers and identify when they planned to return. Hudson is not involved in the litigation, and the complaints do not suggest she knew she was allegedly being watched.<\/p>\n
All three women submitted written reports about Pesantez to human resources on January 22, 2026, according to the complaints. Swett alleges that she had reported his behavior much earlier: Her complaint says she told two server captains and Semma\u2019s then-general manager about the June 2024 incident shortly after it happened, and that they told her Pesantez had behaved similarly with a previous host. She alleges that no action was taken against him at that time.<\/p>\n
Unapologetic Foods has until Monday, September 28, to file their formal response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three sexual-harassment lawsuits against Unapologetic Foods \u2014 the operators of Semma, New York City\u2019s only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant \u2014 are getting attention after the spouse of one of the plaintiffs posted a TikTok video discussing his wife\u2019s employment experience at the West Village restaurant. Tessa Tookes, Charlotte Swett, and Nina Zhuo filed separate lawsuits on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[290,386,352],"class_list":["post-24372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-dining","tag-nyc-restaurant-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117311322390270036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}