One meal serves up lifetime of experience

What would you eat if it were your last meal ever? From lavish lunches to a simple steak, there are so many options. But what if you were one of the UK’s best-known food critics? For Jay Rayner, there’s a book (and a live show) worth of answers

Despite having eaten in some of the world’s most coveted restaurants, this award-winning critic and MasterChef judge says he is most asked this ‘final meal’ question. His ‘death row’ answer remains the same: “I might be greedy but even I would lose my appetite if the next morning I was to be the victim of an appalling miscarriage of justice.

“The fact is, sometimes there are more important things than dinner.”

He added that “the idea of the ‘last supper’ that we bandy around is obviously a fake one. We are asking something else; if nobody was looking and you could just express your appetites, what would you do?”

Rayner explores this in his new book, My Last Supper, which has also been turned into a one-man live show. Now touring, and coming to this year’s Fringe By The Sea in North Berwick next month, it sees the writer delve into our fascination with fantasy final meals – or, as he calls it, One Meal a Lifetime in the Making. During the one-hour performance, he tells stories behind the ingredients he has finally, after being asked so often, decided would be his own answer.

“I got interested in writing about food because it is about so much more than just how things taste – it’s about memory,” he said. “It’s about where we are in locations, the people we’re with, relationships, sex, politics, pleasure and value. All of those things.

“Even if you’re talking to people who say, ‘Well, I’m not that interested in food’, when you start to drill down on their memories, ideally of a time when they felt loved, for example, they will attach it to a foodstuff.

“During my live shows, I ask people for their last supper, what their choices would be.”

He is a firm believer that “what is important is less about the quality and more about what it means to you”.

Jay added: “For me, it’s the ones who go, I want my gran’s Scotch broth, and I want to finish with cranachan like my mum used to make. It’s that kind of thing, where you want to stop and say, ‘Tell me more about that, tell me what it was about your gran’s Scotch broth that was so special’.”

Being on stage at Fringe By The Sea on August 13 at the Belhaven Big Top may be a stark contrast to his day job, but it has more similarities than we might think.

The 55-year-old says it is very much like theatre: “When you go to the theatre to see a production, they’ve already written the script, made the costumes, cast it and rehearsed. There is nothing they can do on the night to make it better than it already is. By the same token, there’s almost nothing restaurants can do when I walk through the door…

“I suppose they can try to ingratiate themselves but I’m quite long in the tooth – I’ve seen every attempt to flatter me there is – so, really, don’t try it. Just treat me like a diner, because that’s what I am.”

The long-running restaurant critic for the Observer newspaper and judge in BBC1’s MasterChef has also written four novels and three non-fiction books, and also hosts BBC Radio 4’s food panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet – so it can be a frightening experience for any restaurateur when he walks in.

His biggest fear? “I really do live in fear of boring the pants off anyone. God help me. My nightmare is staring out into an audience of people who are subtly trying to look at their watches.”

Jay’s show is just one of many food and drink events happening at Fringe By The Sea. The FBTS Supperclub NB Tent will host Arabian Knights; Adam Henson will be discussing food provenance at the Belhaven Big Top; and Belhaven Brewery stages Beer & Food Pairings every day during the 10-day festival at 17.19.

z Catch Jay Rayner live on Saturday August 13 from 11am-noon at Fringe By The Sea’s Belhaven Big Top. To book tickets visit fringebythesea.com (Interview courtesy of The Sunday Post).