It’s a multicultural, multiracial show. Were the creators making a point about the lack of diversity on mainstream television? “No, I was trying to be true to what my real life is,” says Mr Ansari. “I have a pretty diverse group of people around me. I’m not really around just three white people that often. There is some diversity in my life and in my group of friends.”

Mr Ansari shoots for authenticity in other ways – such as the way the characters talk. “We didn’t want that rapid-fire dialogue because people don’t talk like that. I don’t buy it and it takes the emotional heft out of the conversation. We wanted them to sound like real people.”

Even the wardrobe in the series is true to life. “I just wore my own clothes. But people have been asking me on Twitter where I got such and such a jacket from and I can’t tell them it’s Saint Laurent because my character is supposed to be a struggling actor! There’s no way he could afford a Saint Laurent shearling jacket.” Mr Ansari loves fashion and was a particular fan of the now-defunct Band of Outsiders. Japanese brands tend to fit his slight 5ft 6in frame well and Dior and Saint Laurent also suit him. “Hey, you know what brands look really good on me? The most expensive ones!” Recently he’s been trying to get out of the skinny/ preppy rut and embrace unstructured tailoring from Italian brands such as Boglioli.

The waiter returns to clear our plates. The grapefruit remains untouched. “Do you want this?” he asks. “I don’t want to waste it. Let me go say hi to that table and see if anyone there wants it.”

The release of his sitcom marks the culmination of a big year in Mr Ansari’s life. What’s next? “A vacation!” he says as we get up to leave. “When you list all the things I’ve done in the past 12 to 13 months, from doing the [ Madison Square ] Garden to putting out a book, to the show coming out, it’s only hitting me now that – wow, all those things went really well and it’s pretty big!” he says. “I’m really proud of all of those things. They’re three of the best things I’ve done in my career if not the best.”

Far from being a master of none, Mr Ansari, it seems, is an over-achieving polymath.

Master of None is streaming on Netflix now