Jay Rayner

Jay Rayner (born 14 September 1966) is a British journalist, writer, broadcaster and food critic.

Life and career

Rayner is the younger son of journalist Claire Rayner and Desmond Rayner. His family is Jewish.^[3] He was brought up in the Sudbury Hill area of Harrow and Jay attended the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.^[4] He joined The Observer newspaper after graduating from Leeds University in 1988, where he was editor of the student newspaper. He is currently restaurant critic of The Observer. He has written for a wide range of British newspapers and magazines, including GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and Granta. In 1992 he was named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards.

His first novel, The Marble Kiss, published in 1994, was shortlisted for the Author's Club First Novel Award and his second, Day of Atonement (1998), was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Prize for Fiction.^[5] His first non-fiction book, Stardust Falling, was published in 2002 and was followed by his third novel, The Apologist, published in the US as Eating Crow, in 2004.

In 1997 he won a Sony Radio Award for Papertalk, BBC Radio Five Live's magazine programme about the newspaper business, which he presented.

He was one of the panel of critics who made up the titular "enemy" on the daytime cookery show Eating with the Enemy and performs a similar role on the UK version of MasterChef. His television appearances have earnt him the nickname Acid Rayner due to his sour demeanour^[6] . In addition he is the food reporter on the BBC magazine programme The One Show. He was also on the panel of judges on the American programme Top Chef Masters.

Rayner is a supporter of Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association's campaign for older people with sensory loss.^{[citation needed]}

He chairs a Radio Four programme called "Kitchen Cabinet" (SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p9l1v). He has also appeared on University Challenge when it was their Christmas special.

He was awarded the title Beard of the Year for 2011 by the Beard Liberation Front.^[7]

He attended Malton Food Festival as a guest star in 2013, with celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio.

Given Martin Kelner's increased television role this summer, it has been rumoured that Rayner has been approached by executives at BBC Radio Leeds to sit in for Kelner on his daily 12.00.noon-2.00pm programme throughout June and July 2013.

Books

Fiction

• The Marble Kiss (1994), ISBN 0-333-62134-4
• Day of Atonement (1998), ISBN 0-552-99783-8
• The Apologist (2004), ISBN 1-55278-416-9
• The Oyster House Siege (2007), ISBN 1-84354-566-7

Non-fiction

• Star Dust Falling (2002), ISBN 0-552-99908-3
• The Man Who Ate The World (2008), ISBN 0-8050-8669-2^[8]

Awards

• Restaurant Critic Of The Year, Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards (2001)
• Critic Of The Year, British Press Awards (2006)

Reviews

• Review of The Man Who Ate The World at Letters On Pages

References

External links

• Jay's agency bio
• Gourmet Traveller interview "A Bite With the Man Who Ate The World"
• The Man Who Ate The World interview at Letters On Pages