Jay Rayner

Jason Matthew Rayner (born 14 September 1966) is a British journalist and food critic. He has worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. He was the Observer restaurant critic from 1999 until 2024, when he joined the Financial Times. Rayner is a judge on the British version of the cooking show MasterChef and has written several novels.

Jay Rayner
Rayner in 2019
Born	Jason Matthew Rayner (1966-09-14) 14 September 1966 (age 58)[1] Brent, London, England
Education	Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma mater	University of Leeds
Occupation(s)	Broadcaster, writer, journalist, food critic
Years active	1988–present
Employer(s)	Financial Times BBC Channel 4 Formerly, The Observer
Spouse	Pat Gordon-Smith[2]
Children	2
Parent(s)	Desmond Rayner Claire Rayner
Awards	British Press Awards

Early life

Rayner was born on 14 September 1966.^[3][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.^[3]

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 at 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.^[3]

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 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 Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. 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. His third novel, The Apologist, was published in 2004.

In 1997, Rayner won a Sony Radio Award for Papertalk, BBC Radio 5 Live's magazine programme about the newspaper business, which he presented. He chairs BBC Radio 4's food panel programme The Kitchen Cabinet.^[9]

Rayner is a judge on the UK version of MasterChef.^[10] 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.^[11]

In November 2024, Rayner announced he had left The Observer. Rayner was critical of its pending sale to Tortoise Media, and wrote that some Guardian staff were antisemitic, which made it "uncomfortable, at times excruciating" to work for.^[12][13] He joined the Financial Times as their new restaurant critic, amid an expansion of its weekend food and drink coverage.^[13]

Personal life

Rayner was awarded the title Beard of the Year for 2011 by the Beard Liberation Front.^[14] He plays piano with his jazz ensemble the Jay Rayner Sextet.^[15] He described himself as a non-observant Jew.^[13]

Books

Fiction

• —— (1994). The Marble Kiss. Macmillan. ISBN 9780333621349.
• —— (1998). Day of Atonement. Black Swan. ISBN 9780552997836.
• —— (2004). The Apologist. McArthur & Company. ISBN 9781552784167.
• —— (2007). The Oyster House Siege. Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781843545668.

Non-fiction

• —— (2002). Star Dust Falling. Black Swan. ISBN 9780552999083.
• —— (2008). The Man Who Ate the World. Holt Paperbacks. ISBN 9780805086690.^[16]
• —— (2012). My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780241963203.
• —— (2014). A Greedy Man in a Hungry World. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780007237609.
• —— (2016). The Ten (Food) Commandments. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780241976692.
• —— (2018). Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781783351763.^[17]
• —— (2019). My Last Supper. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781783351466.
• —— (2021). Chewing the Fat: Tasting Notes from a Greedy Life. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781783352395.

Awards

• Restaurant Critic of the Year, Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards (2001)^[18]
• Critic of the Year, British Press Awards (2006)^[19]