John Gulliver: Making a meal of Pavarotti
David Wilson's recipe book My World Cafe tells the stories behind his favourite meals
Friday, 13th January 2023 — By John Gulliver
David Wilson with Deicola Neves at Made in Brasil
I am sure we have all had at least one unforgettable meal that has burned its way into the long-term memory.
The War Child charity whistleblower David Wilson, who lives in Tufnell Park, recalls several of his all-time favourites, along with a list of simple-to-follow recipes, in his new book, My World Cafe.
It includes one particular knockout anecdote about the time he won a pizza-eating contest against Luciano Pavarotti at the opera singer’s farmhouse home in Pesaro on the sun- kissed Adriatic coast.
“I watched Pavarotti load the clay pizza oven with them,” writes Mr Wilson, who had not eaten properly for two days before the encounter. “I went to a sixth round. Smiling broadly, Pavarotti announced: ‘The English win.’ Then he added, ‘But I am on a diet’.”
Mr Wilson set up War Child in 1993 but later turned against the children’s charity as a corruption whistleblower.
Pavarotti had empathised with War Child’s ambitions, having gone hungry as a boy during the Second World War, and became a patron.
In 1995 Mr Wilson convinced A-list acts like Paul McCartney, Oasis, Blur and Radiohead to record Help album that raised £1.25million for the charity that funded a Pavarotti Music Centre in war-torn Mostar, Bosnia.
As director of the centre that brought the joys of classical music to children in the conflict zone, he met the great man several times over the years.
I caught up with Mr Wilson this week as he was eating “picanha” steak in Made in Brasil, Camden Town, with his good friend Deicola Neves from Camden Guitars.
One of the chapters in his book recalls their meals together at the restaurant in Inverness Street, while praising the independent shop in Chalk Farm Road for its homemade guitars, some fashioned from fallen tree wood from Hampstead Heath.
My World Cafe, which tells the stories of Mr Wilson’s favourite meals and recipes, is the kind of book that could be achingly egotistical and pretentious.
But this is filled with a warm blend of stories of friendship, history and politics along with dishes enjoyed around the world including liver-and-bacon, borscht to strozzapreti and goulash.
Mr Wilson writes about picanha and “banana caipirinha cocktails” that take him back to a time in an expensive seaside resort in Brazil where a guitarist was playing Garota De Ipanema.
He writes how “there are no cocktails where Deicola comes from” in Brazil, adding: “He is from a family of 11 children. Meat was expensive and his family’s diet was based on rice, beans and vegetables. He remembers eating picanha on special occasions only.”
The book also recalls fond memories of helping to eject racists from the Beer and Curry restaurant in 1970s Belsize Park, while enjoying a tandoori chicken with his friend Alastair Hatchett.
Then there was dining on Kabuli Pulau with Ken Livingstone after the former London Mayor had been expelled from the Labour Party in the Afghan restaurant in Kilburn High Road, Ariana II.
The conversation ranged from Thatcher, anti-semitism, Corbyn to Livingstone’s favourite meals, which unexpectedly turned out to be a chicken and leek ready meal.
On the Pulalo, Mr Wilson writes: “I enjoyed the savoury sweetness of the carrots and raisins, the saltiness or the meat, the crunchiness or the almonds, pistachios and cashews.”
My World Cafe – illustrated by Laura Davis – is available in Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town among others in Camden.
