Chewing the Fat with Jay Rayner

We spoke to writer and food reviewer Jay Rayner about the joys of messy eating and other edible thrills

Photo: Bella West

Jay Rayner is perhaps best known for his (occasionally scathing) restaurant reviews in the Observer, for whom he is also a features writer. His journalism has seen him win multiple awards, with his features translated into over a dozen languages. He is also a familiar face on television, appearing regularly as a judge on Masterchef, and a panellist on BBC2’s Eating With The Enemy.

A prolific writer, he is the author of four novels and six works of nonfiction. The most recent, Chewing the Fat: Taste Notes From a Greedy Life, is a selection of his culinary dispatches. By turns enthusiastic and caustic, it is a celebration of food in all its messy glory.

We interviewed Jay about his favourite restaurants, his resolutely guilt-free pleasures and his dislike of over-embellished food.

What are your favourite places to eat in the UK for what you refer to in Chewing the Fat as ‘edible thrills’?

I’m often asked what my favourite restaurant is and it’s an impossible question to answer, as so much is dependent on your mood, and who you’re with. But the first place that springs to mind is The Company Shed on Mersea Island in Essex. It’s literally a shed, but you don’t go there for the carpets and the chandeliers, you go for the seafood.

I also love The Seafood Shack in Oban, which serves crab sandwiches the size of airport novels. And then, of course, there’s The Hidden Hut on Porthcurnick Beach in Cornwall, which runs outdoor feast nights during the summer. There’s around a dozen of us going down to Cornwall on holiday this summer, and he’s putting on one for us, which I’m really excited about.

What this says about me is that I’m grossly spoilt. I’ve eaten out at a lot of restaurants, and now I just focus on the most bare bones places.

In the book you mention a dislike of ‘tweezer food’. What are your biggest pet peeves about Britain’s food scene?

Happily the greatest silliness is in retreat. But there are still some things that irritate me. The idea of food that isn’t served on a plate, for example. If the most striking thing about your food is that it’s served on slate, then you’re doing something wrong.

I’m irritated by the constant attempts to reinvent the burger. I like burgers. The wagyu burger for example – wagyu is renowned as being an excellent cut of beef, so why on earth do you want to stick it through a mincer?

Please don’t serve me precious metals on my dinner. I don’t want to eat them. I know that there’s a tradition of using gold leaf in some Indian cuisines, but in contemporary cuisine here it’s just showing off, so the consumer can say “look at me”.

And finally, tweezer food. If you need to place an ingredient on my plate with tweezers, it’s there in such insufficient quantity that will I even be able to taste it?

And on the flip side, what are your favourite things about it?

One trend I absolutely love on the British food scene at the moment is cooking with fire. There’s something really exciting about it, and it’s being done by very skilled people who know what it requires, like Tomos Parry of Brat restaurant. It’s not just about slapping something on the grill, it’s about building up flavours with smoke and spice.

How does Chewing the Fat differ from your other books?

In some of my other collections, it feels there is a rant on every page. There are a few rants in this one – my hatred of picnics for example – but it is on the whole a lot more positive. It’s more about what it is to be human, and to eat. Writing a 600-word column is a formal constraint, especially if you are trying to discuss bigger issues, but taken together I think they create a broader picture of the joys of eating.

Chewing the Fat is a celebration of messiness in cooking and eating. In an era of curated Instagram feeds that’s really important. Can you give us your thoughts on messy eating?

First of all, I’d like to express my hatred of the word ‘curated’ in food. Curating is something that is done in a museum; caring for and preserving an exhibit. What people do on Instagram isn’t curating; they’re just making their food look overly pretty and photographing it. I use my own Instagram more as an aide memoire for writing reviews. When I’m eating, I’m not going to start getting the lights out and telling everyone to stay still.

The bottom line is that life is messy. Being human is messy. We work very hard to project straight lines onto our narratives, but it doesn’t always work. That’s why food that is too neat makes me anxious, as if I’m seeing the anxiety of the chef laid out on a plate.

The greatest dishes in the world are brown. It’s because they’ve been cooked for ages and it makes them taste wonderful. A lot of the greatest food is messy. We really need to relax about it.

This is an abridged version of an interview with Jay Rayner; the full version appears in Issue 116 of Great British Food, out September 3rd

Go to Jay's Book Launch!

​Chewing the Fat by Jay Rayner is published on the 2nd September. There is a launch event for the book at the Apollo Theatre on September 6th, where Jay will be in conversation with the marvellous Jo Brand, and also answering questions.

Top price tickets include a signed copy of the book!

Buy Tickets Now