I ran one of London’s most star-studded celeb restaurants… George Michael was brilliant but I had to ban Keith Lemon
HE’S cooked for more celebrities than most of us have had hot dinners.
And following his exciting return to the London restaurant scene after a decade away, top chef Aldo Zilli has been reminiscing about the old days.
Italian-born Aldo, a former food writer for The Sun, opened his first restaurant in London’s Soho in the 1980s and it quickly became a popular hotspot for celebs including Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, fellow pop star George Michael, supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney.
His new restaurant Lucarelli is next door to the swanky Fifth Floor Bar at London’s Harvey Nichols department store, where he spent many an afternoon boozing with his radio presenter mate Chris Evans.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Aldo, 67, lifts the lid on his A-list diners and reveals why he had to ban TV prankster Keith Lemon from his restaurant.
He said: “It was about 4am.
“There were loads of celebrities at Signor Zilli’s that night and everyone was a little bit drunk.
“It seems crazy saying it out loud, but Freddie Mercury had gone downstairs to make himself some chips but he forgot to put the oil in the fryer.
“All this smoke started coming up the stairs, filling the restaurant.
“I went down to see what was going on and there was Freddie stood there in all this thick smoke.
“He was always great to have in, and despite our friendship he always insisted on paying.
“He would never accept a freebie from me.
“He’d come in, sit in the corner and eat his food, then we’d go out clubbing or back to his house.
‘Police had to close the street – it was chaos’
“George Michael was always brilliant, too.
“One New Year’s Eve he was DJing and all he played was his own music all night.
“Everybody that didn’t like his music had to leave!
“He was playing all Wham! songs.
“Martin Kemp was there dancing all night.
“Everybody turned up, including Mick Hucknell and Naomi Campbell.
“I remember turning round and seeing Naomi walk in.
“We locked the doors and partied until daylight.
“That was such a great night.
“Naomi started coming in quite regularly after that.
“I remember another day she was sitting outside the restaurant in Dean Street, and this guy passed by and took a picture of her.
“She had a proper diva moment and made me stop him and get rid of the camera.
“Luckily it was a disposable camera. I had to confiscate it.
“Annie Lennox was another regular who was amazing.
“She’d come in with her bandmate Dave Stewart and even celebrated one of her birthdays at my restaurant.
“In the late 1980s we had Bros come in. They parked their limo outside and somehow all their fans, Brosettes, discovered they were inside.
“This was the days before social media or anything like that, but somehow all the fans found out they were here.
“We had to lock the restaurant, we locked ourselves in.
“The police had to close Dean Street, it was chaos.
“The fans got up on top of their limo, they were all over it.”
Aldo went on to open two more restaurants in London, Zilli Fish and Cafe Zilli, and relaunched Signor Zilli as Zilli Green after being inspired by Sir Paul McCartney.
He said: “I’m a big vegan fan and was one of the first chefs to open a vegetarian restaurant in Soho.
“I’d cooked for the McCartneys for 25 years and opened a restaurant aimed at them.
“We relaunched Signor Zilli as Zilli Green in the 1990s.
“Linda was still alive, I’d cook for Paul, Linda and the children, I watched them all grow up.
“Veganism is going to get even more massive.
“You just have to look at the price of good meat and good fish.
“People are going to think, ‘If I can make a good thing with vegetables then why not?’. They can grow their vegetables too.”
Aldo quit the London restaurant scene in 2012 and moved to Surrey with his wife Nikki and their children, son Rocco, 16, and daughter Twiggy, 14.
He also has daughter Laura, 37, from his first marriage.
Having been one of the first to introduce authentic Italian cuisine to London, he became a consultant, advising those in the industry.
When the pandemic hit he lost all these clients but cooked up a plan and opened a takeaway and delivery service from his home kitchen — and Casa Zilli was born.
And Aldo quickly gained another celebrity client, his neighbour, Dame Judi Dench, 88.
Aldo said: “I used to serve Dame Judi in Zilli Fish.
“She’s very funny without knowing it and I just love all her stories.
“She’s done it all. The crazy thing is she’s now my neighbour.
“I still can’t get my head around that.
“She comes to Casa Zilli and loves my lobster ravioli.
“She is my Queen.”
Another celebrity Aldo got to know during his days at Zilli Fish, a Soho institution for 15 years, was Keith Lemon star Leigh Francis, 49.
While party girl Kate Moss, 49, always behaved in his restaurants, he had to ban Leigh after he kept coming in and singing Bros hit When Will I Be Famous? to all his customers.
Aldo said: “Kate was always lovely, she never misbehaved in my restaurant.
“One person who did misbehave was Keith Lemon.
“He was at the very beginning of his career, when no one knew who he was.
“He used to come and do his karaoke in Zilli Fish at lunchtime in front of my customers.
“He used to sing When Will I Be Famous? until one day he went to Alan Parker’s table — he was one of the biggest filmmakers in the world — and started singing.
Aldo admits it feels like he’s dreaming
“Keith would come in, go to the toilet, get changed into a character, come out and just start singing to customers.
“The restaurant was so busy that I went along with it for a while until the customers started kicking off.
“Anyway, Alan Parker called me and said, ‘Listen, if you don’t bar that guy I’m never coming back to your restaurant again’, so I had to ban him.
“I only spoke to him again two years ago, when he came to do Through The Keyhole at my house.
“But from the time I barred him he never spoke to me for ten years.”
Aldo returned to the London restaurant scene with Lucarelli just before Christmas last year.
Situated inside department store Harvey Nichols in posh Knightsbridge, with a signature menu of “family-favourite” Italian dishes, he admits it feels like he’s dreaming.
Self-made Aldo, who arrived in London from Abruzzo, Italy, in the late 1970s with just £100 in his pocket, said: “The bar next door to my restaurant brings back really good memories of afternoon parties in there with Chris Evans.
“We’d be sat there for hours.
“It was our hideaway. No one knew where he was but we were in there!
“That’s why I’ve come back here. I love this place.
“ I came from nothing. I grew up in London after coming here from a small village in Italy.
“When my wife decided she wanted to move to the countryside, we left.
“But now, having London again for me, well it’s special.
“On my first day at the restaurant I got the train from Surrey and got to Victoria and jumped into a black cab.
And do you know how good it felt to say, ‘Harvey Nics, Knightsbridge please!’.
“I thought I was dreaming.
“So many people in London remember my restaurants.
“There’s this nostalgia associated with my food.
“It’s great to be back.”
While a lot of celebrity chefs just put their names to restaurants, Aldo is actually working in the kitchen at Lucarelli, serving his customers.
He said: “I want people to come here and have something a bit special.
“Going out has become a treat, something special, especially with the cost-of-living crisis.
“I like to be in the restaurants, it’s not something I just put my name to, like a lot of chefs do.
“And I wanted an open kitchen because I wanted people to see what we do.
“There’s a bar so you can sit there and watch the chefs.
“We’ve already had a few famous faces in and we’ve just started stocking Gary Barlow’s wine.
“It feels good to be back.”