Jay Rayner
Rayner in 2019
Born
Jason Matthew Rayner

(1966-09-14) 14 September 1966[1]
Brent, London, England
EducationHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma materUniversity of Leeds
Occupation(s)Broadcaster, writer, journalist, food critic
Years active1988–present
Employer(s)BBC, Channel 4 and The Observer
SpousePat Gordon-Smith[2]
Children2
Parent(s)Desmond Rayner
Claire Rayner

Jason Matthew Rayner[3] (born 14 September 1966) is an English journalist and food critic. He was raised in Harrow, London, and studied politics at the University of Leeds, where he edited the Leeds Student newspaper. After graduating, he worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. He became the Observer restaurant critic in 1999. Rayner has also written several books.

Early life

Rayner was born on 14 September 1966.[4] He is the younger son of Desmond Rayner and journalist Claire Rayner. His family is Jewish.[5] He was raised in the Sudbury Hill area of Harrow, London, and attended the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.[6] He studied politics at the University of Leeds, where he was editor of the Leeds Student newspaper, graduating in 1988.[4]

Career

Rayner worked as a freelance journalist after graduating, writing for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. In 1992, he was named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards. He worked as a feature writer for The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer before becoming the Observer restaurant critic in 1999.[4] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many restaurants were forced to close, Rayner announced he would not publish negative reviews. He wrote: "That doesn't mean giving good reviews to bad places, or not including criticisms. It just means that if I can't be generally positive, I won't review and will move on."[7]

Rayner has also written for magazines including GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and Granta. 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.[8] His first non-fiction book, Stardust Falling, was published in 2002; this 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 chairs a BBC Radio 4 programme called The Kitchen Cabinet.[9]

Rayner was one of the panel of critics who made up the "enemy" on the daytime cookery show Eating with the Enemy, and performs a similar role on the UK version of MasterChef. He is the food reporter on the BBC magazine programme The One Show, and was on the panel of judges on the American programme Top Chef Masters. He appeared as a guest judge on the "UK" episode of The Final Table, season 1.

Rayner hosts the Out to Lunch podcast in which he interviews a celebrity guest in each episode.[10]

Personal life

He was awarded the title Beard of the Year for 2011 by the Beard Liberation Front.[11] He plays piano with his jazz ensemble the Jay Rayner Quartet.[12]

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[13]
  • My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out (2012), ISBN 9780241963203
  • A Greedy Man in a Hungry World (2014), ISBN 9780007237609
  • The Ten (Food) Commandments (2016), ISBN 9780241976692
  • Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights (2018), a collection of some of Rayner's negative reviews[14] ISBN 9781783351763
  • My Last Supper (2019), ISBN 9781783351466

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Researcha". Web.researcha.com.
  2. ↑ Neustatter, Angela (3 November 1996). "Is it time confessional man shut up?". The Independent. London.
  3. ↑ "Search Results for England 26 Wales Births 1837-2006".
  4. 1 2 3 "Rayner, Jay". Rayner, Jay, (Born 14 Sept. 1966), freelance writer, journalist, broadcaster and musician. Who's Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u119824.
  5. ↑ "Books | The Big Interview: Jay Rayner". Yorkshire Post. 2 June 2013. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013.
  6. ↑ Rayner, Jay (2 March 2003). "Tales my mother never told me". The Observer. London. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  7. ↑ Rayner, Jay (17 September 2020). "I put negative reviews on pause after lockdown. Here's why that must continue". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize Winners 1996 – 2000 inclusive". The Jewish Quarterly). 16 March 2009. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "The Kitchen Cabinet" at BBC Radio 4. Archived 15 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 6 June 2015
  10. ↑ Woode, David (24 August 2019). "Food podcasts: The five best for cookery fans from Out To Lunch with Jay Rayner to Off Menu". i.
  11. ↑ "2011: a good year for facial hair". Open Road. 29 December 2011. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  12. ↑ "VIDEO: Masterchef star Jay Rayner brings foodie fun to Northampton". 12 October 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  13. ↑ "Interview with Jay Rayner". digyorkshire.com. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
  14. ↑ Announcing - a new collection of my scorching reviews of terrible restaurants
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