#74: Jay Rayner, restaurant critic, the Observer

Simon and Rachel speak with Jay Rayner, the restaurant critic of the Observer. After studying politics at Leeds University, where he edited the student newspaper, Jay entered national newspaper journalism, winning Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1992. The restaurant critic of the Observer since 1999, Jay has also worked extensively in television, including as a judge on Masterchef, and written several books. Jay talked about how, in his view, there is no such thing as “food writing” (just writing that happens to be about food), his lesser-known stint as a novelist and his celebrated hatchet job on Le Cinq, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris.

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