The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Jay Rayner: The Ten (Food) Commandments
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, May 6; Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, May 9
Restaurant critic, journalist and broadcaster Jay Rayner is no stranger to a good old rant. As we chat ahead of the Scottish leg of his Ten (Food) Commandments tour, he is getting het up about reactions to his latest restaurant review, where the ‘below the line’ comments focus on perceived tiny portions.
“I mean, have you seen what I look like?” he rages. “Don’t you think that if the portions had been anything other than entirely satisfactory I might have mentioned it? I am not a man with a bird-like appetite and a 28” waist!”
Jay may not mince his words when it comes to reviews and his large social media presence but he is approachable and very funny on the phone.
Best known for his weekly restaurant reviews in The Observer, the MasterChef judge and jazz musician is preparing to bring his solo show to Scotland. In The Ten (Food) Commandments, Jay takes his audience through an audio-visual tour of his self-penned Commandments, including Though Shalt Eat with Thy Hands and Thou Shall Honour Thy Pig. “The conceit is that I am your culinary Moses leading you into the Promised Land.”
It sounds like an unusual proposal for the self-described Godless Jew but as he points out: “You need a hook! 10 is a good round number plus each subject leads somewhere. As in Thou Shalt Always Eat with Thy Hands, that chapter is an investigation of how cutlery happened, what it does to the eating experience.”
“In the second half of the show, I invite the audience to tweet their Commandments to me. The ones I love are the ones where the person is obviously tweeting about their partner’s appalling behaviour.”
Jay also plans to spend some time eating while he is here. “This week is definitely going to be the source of a few reviews.
“Scotland has been celebrating Scottish produce in an almost Italian way for a good couple of decades; long before the rest of the country had started, you would come up to Scotland and menus were celebrating the best of Scottish produce.”
Chefs do have to translate a passion for local food into a great dish, however. “It’s got to be more than just lip service; are these just buzzwords or does it actually mean something on the plate? I remember, at the Peat Inn, it really did.” And Mr Rayner will certainly find you out if it doesn’t!
Despite his sometimes cutting reviews, Jay loves to eat out, “People read me for the writing but you couldn’t continue writing about restaurants unless you loved them and I do, I always have. I walk through a door hopefully,” he says.