Three women who worked the host stand at a Michelin-starred West Village restaurant say a manager there sexually harassed them, and they’ve filed federal lawsuits against the restaurant’s operators alleging harassment, discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment. The complaints describe unwanted touching, pressure to drink after work, comments about one woman’s body and race, and a manager who allegedly used the restaurant’s security cameras to watch women he found attractive.
The restaurant is Semma, the South Indian spot at 60 Greenwich Avenue that holds the city’s only Michelin star for an Indian restaurant. Tessa Tookes, Charlotte Swett and Nina Zhuo each filed separate suits on July 27 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Unapologetic Foods and Tapestry Management, the LLC that operates Semma, as first reported by Eater. The complaints center on Santo Pesantez, who was Unapologetic Foods’ director of operations at the time and, according to the lawsuits, an interim manager at Semma. Pesantez isn’t named as a defendant; the suits target the companies and the supervisory authority the women say he had over staff.
One of the camera allegations involves a celebrity. Zhuo’s complaint says that while actress Kate Hudson was dining at Adda, another Unapologetic Foods restaurant, Pesantez came to Semma’s host stand and showed Zhuo and Tookes live security footage of Hudson’s table on his phone. Hudson isn’t part of the litigation, and the complaints don’t suggest she knew she was allegedly being watched.
The individual allegations vary by plaintiff. Tookes says the behavior started during hiring: according to her complaint, during an observation shift the night after her interview, Pesantez took her to dinner, repeatedly encouraged her to drink, steered the conversation to sexual subjects and kissed her cheek without consent. She also alleges he offered to order her an Uber home, and that once she was in the car she realized it was heading away from her apartment; Pesantez then called and said he’d accidentally added a stop near his own home to the trip.
Swett alleges Pesantez pressured her to go drinking after work, brought her to a strip club, made sexual comments and touched her without her consent. After she reported him to a supervisor, her complaint says, he interfered with her efforts to get promoted. Zhuo alleges repeated comments about her appearance, weight and age that eventually escalated to unwanted physical contact, along with racially charged conversations involving the phrase “yellow fever” and sexual stereotypes about Asian women.
All three women submitted written reports about Pesantez to human resources on January 22 of this year, according to the complaints. Swett says she’d flagged him long before that. Her complaint states she told two server captains and Semma’s then-general manager about a June 2024 incident shortly after it happened, that they told her Pesantez had acted similarly toward a previous host, and that nothing was done at the time.
A spokesperson for Unapologetic Foods told Eater that Pesantez was fired earlier this year after the three women went to HR. The company’s attorney declined to comment on active litigation, but the spokesperson said the group doesn’t tolerate harassment or discrimination in its restaurants and “categorically” denies the allegations, adding that it will defend against the claims in court.
The suits had been pending quietly for nearly two months until Joey Kirchner, Tookes’ husband, posted a TikTok on the couple’s @joeyandtessa account discussing his wife’s experience at the restaurant. He doesn’t name Semma in the video, but details he describes, including the Uber ride, match allegations in Tookes’ complaint. Kirchner says the unresolved case has been “hanging over” the couple while the restaurant keeps collecting accolades. Tookes appears briefly at the end without speaking.
Semma opened in 2021, and chef Vijay Kumar won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State in 2025. Unapologetic Foods’ other restaurants include Dhamaka on the Lower East Side, Masalawala & Sons in Brooklyn, the relocated Adda and the Filipino restaurant Naks. The company has until Monday, September 28, to file its formal response to the lawsuits.
