Pearl Mackie: The Doctor Who star on her dream last supper

Pearl Mackie, star of Netflix thriller The Diplomat and the upcoming production of Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre, tells us what she would eat for her last meal on earth

My mum was vegetarian so I was veggie when I was growing up, until I was about 12. Back then it wasn’t great being vegetarian – it was basically all Linda McCartney.  I was always curious though – I was one of those kids that ate everything. I would have carrot sticks and hummus in my lunch box long before it was trendy, especially in my sort of inner city school in South London. I would swap with other kids for bits of sausage so I could see what meat tasted like. 

My uncle was an amazing cook and I used to eat meat when I went to his house. He’s Jamaican and he would make these amazing chicken curries, which is what first got me interested in food and cooking. I asked him for some recipes and he would tell me what to put in the pot but no actual quantities, he was just like: “Add seasoning until it tastes good…” And to this day, that’s how I cook. I’m not very good at following a recipe but I know when something tastes nice.

I cook a lot of East Asian dishes these days. My wife and I eat pho and ramen and tom yum soup. It can be tricky though as I have quite a serious shellfish allergy so I have to get fish sauce that doesn’t have shrimp paste in it.

One of my favourite restaurants in London is Jose Pizarro’s ‘Jose’ on Bermondsey Street – you can’t book a table so you have to just queue and you might end up sitting on the tiny little tables outside but the food is so good. I know people are over small plates but I love them. I’m indecisive so I want to order as much of the menu as I can.

I’m gonna start my final meal with an absolutely filthy vodka martini. Like, disgracefully filthy, so you can’t even see through it. I don’t drink martinis much because they’re lethal. I worked with an actor friend who used to make martinis after the show in her dressing room – I once had two and could barely walk out of the theatre. 

I’ll kick off the food with this Scotch bonnet pork fat on toast, which I ate at the Camberwell Arms and it was just amazing, and I’ll have them bring me some of the jamon Iberico croquettes from Jose.

Pearl Mackie: This is going to sound a bit weird given I have a shellfish allergy but I’m going to eat as much shellfish as I can

Next I want a taco – just a small one – from this taco stand my wife and I went to on New Year’s Eve in Roma in Mexico City just after we got engaged. We were really jetlagged and we ended up at this tiny taco stand – I couldn’t even tell you the name of it – and to this day, it’s the best taco I have eaten in my whole life. It was just a really simple taco al pastor, which is a specialty in Mexico City made using thin slices of really crispy pork shoulder with a bit of pineapple on top.

This next course is going to sound a bit weird given I have a shellfish allergy but I’m going to eat as much shellfish as I can. If I’m going to die anyway I may as well, and if I’m on death row it will be two fingers up to whoever put me there because I might die before they can kill me. So I’m going to order a whole lobster. My auntie used to live in LA and when I was about 13 – before I developed the allergy – we went to visit her and drove out to Malibu Beach. We found a cute beach restaurant and went inside to eat – that lobster was so delicious and I’ve wished I could eat it again for most of my adult life. I’ll actually make it a surf and turf and add a fillet steak, too. I know we’re supposed to go for the more unusual cuts these days but for me you can’t beat a melt-in-the-mouth fillet. 

My wife has quite a serious nut allergy, so I basically don’t eat nuts anymore, because I’m absolutely paranoid about eating them and forgetting and kissing her and, you know, killing her. But we’re gonna do a scoop of this pine nut ice cream I had when I went to Rome when I was a student, which I got from this gelateria that stocked like 200 flavours of ice cream. And to round off dessert I’ll have a classic tarte tatin because it will remind me that I used to spend a lot of time in France when I was younger.

There is no wine that could possibly go with all that but I’ll wash it down with a glass of nero d’avola. Between that and the martini I should be nicely tipsy, which will be a good way to go.

• Pearl Mackie will star in Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre from 5 December