Jay Rayner is an award winning journalist, writer and broadcaster. Born in London, Rayner has worked extensively in the British and International media as a columnist and feature writer on everything crime and politics to arts and fashion. He is now a feature writer for The Observer and a restaurant critic. He studied politics at Leeds University and edited the student newspaper. After that, he joined national newspaper journalism. He was awarded Young Journalist of The Year in 1992 by the British Press Awards. Since then, he has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards such as the Food and Drink writer award for three consecutive years. He was named Critic of the year in 2006, which he again won. He was nominated for three Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards and was named restaurant critic in 2001. He was awarded the Derek Cooper Award for Investigative Journalism and Campaigning Journalism by the Guild of Food Writers in 2013. As a BBC presenter, he has received two Sony radio awards nominations and a Sony Gold. He is also the anchor of Papertalk, which is a program about British newspapers. He was also nominated for the Commission for Racial Equality’s Race in the Media Awards for reporting on race crime in Britain and for the Mental Health Media Awards for his work in mental health. Jay has also written for magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire and GQ, and contributed to Saveur and Gourmet in the US. Jay’s feature writing has been translated into over a dozen languages and is syndicated regularly around the globe. His television experience includes participation as a judge on multiple Masterchef series and as a panelist on BBC2’s Eating With The Enemy. He presented two episodes of Dispatches on Channel 4 and was a panelist for Top Chef Masters in the USA, a spinoff of Top Chef. He was The One Show’s resident food pundit from 2009 to 2016. He was the host of The Kitchen Cabinet, a BBC Radio 4 food panel show that won awards in 2012. It regularly attracts more than two million listeners. He is the author four novels and four non-fiction works. The Marble Kiss, which was published in 1994, was nominated to the Author’s Club of Great Britain First Novel Award. Day of Atonement, Jay’s second novel, was published in 1998 and nominated by the Jewish Quarterly for its international prize for Jewish fiction. Jay’s writings have been published in eBook specials by Studio 28, Curtis Brown Ltd’s publishing arm. Star Dust Falling, a true story about a ill-fated airliner that disappeared over the Andes in 1947, was published both on the Atlantic and by The Apologist in 2004. Rights were sold to the USA, Canada, Germany, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands and Canada. His first novel, The Oyster House Siege was published in March 2007. In 2008, The Man Who Ate The World was published. This non-fiction book chronicles his quest for the perfect meal at the new breed luxury restaurants all over the world. In spring 2013, Jay published his latest book, A Greedy man in a hungry world, which is a full-length account of the 21st century’s challenges to food security. Jay was called to testify before the House of Commons Select Committee on Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs. Jay published My Dining Hell, Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Evening Out in 2013, an eBook that contained his harshest reviews. It was published in paperback in 2015 as a companion piece to his one-man show. The show has been seen in packed houses across Britain and even performed in New York. The Ten (food) Commandments, along with the accompanying show, followed that in 2016. They continue to tour Britain and have been performed in Australia as well as New Zealand. Jay has been playing the piano for many years. Jay formed the Jay Rayner Quartet in 2012 and began playing around the country. They played a variety of songs from the Great American Songbook, including tunes that revolved around food and drink. They have been regulars at London’s Brasserie Zedel’s Crazy Coqs cabaret and performed at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in November 2015. They will be appearing at the Buxton Festival, The Petworth Festival, and The Snape Prom At Snape Maltings in 2017. A Night of Food and Agony is their first live album. It was released in November 2017. Jay lives in London, with Pat and their two children, Eddie, and Daniel. He spends any spare time learning jazz piano. Visit www.jayrayner.co.uk
