Jay Rayner combines personal experience and hard-nosed reportage to explain why the doctrine of organic has been eclipsed by the need for sustainable intensification; and why the future lies in large-scale food production rather than the cottage industries that foodies often cheer for. From the cornfields of America to the killing lines of Yorkshire abattoirs via the sheep-covered hills of New Zealand, Rayner takes us on a journey that will change the way we shop, cook and eat forever. And give us a few belly laughs along the way. It was at our kitchen table that I learned the power of food and meal times. With a full plate in front of them, people would talk. They would drop onto their elbows and unload, both the good things and the bad, for my mother made her living as an agony aunt and was therefore considered both a good listener and a source of professional wisdom. There was no such thing as oversharing. Here, fuelled by those fish balls and bagels, they would be the most unselfconscious version of themselves. Oh, the stories they told. Sometimes we would talk about the food itself. I learned the correct way to build a cream cheese and smoked salmon bagel. (The cheese is not a butter substitute, to be spread thinly. It is a pedestal for the salmon and so to be piled high, like a litter of cushions.) We would, between mouthfuls, discuss whether this week’s chopped liver was as good as last week’s. I understood that this life of the table mattered. Neustatter, Angela (3 November 1996). "Is it time confessional man shut up?". The Independent. London. A masterclass in both braising meat and reducing sauces’: Jay Rayner’s version of Gary Rhodes’s braised oxtail. Photograph: Jay Rayner Edo in the centre of Belfast also has a smoky, live fire focus to its cooking courtesy of the wood burning Bertha oven at the heart of the kitchen. Much of chef Jonny Elliott’s menu is a robust take on classic tapas: there are croquetas, tortillas and padron peppers. But there are also salt room aged steaks and fish dishes sent for a spin through the intense heat of the apple and pear wood-burning Bertha ( edorestaurant.co.uk).

There are cheerleading slogans on both the walls and the waiters’ aprons announcing its virtue, and a chalkboard comparing the nutritional value of eggs and tofu. (The tofu has zero cholesterol compared to the eggs, which are lousy with it. Go tofu!) But virtue is not a serving suggestion, however much some people may pretend it could be. Virtue can literally leave a nasty taste in the mouth, if the person doing the cooking isn’t up to the job.This article was amended on 24 January 2021 to replace the first recipe photo. An earlier version had a photo which was described as being oxtail, but in fact showed a different dish.

In 1997 he won a Sony Radio Award for Papertalk, BBC Radio Five Live's magazine programme about the newspaper business, which he presented. He chairs a BBC Radio 4 programme called The Kitchen Cabinet. [9] Jason Matthew Rayner [3] (born 14 September 1966) is an English journalist and food critic. He was raised in Harrow, London, and studied politics at the University of Leeds, where he edited the Leeds Student newspaper. After graduating, he worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. He became the Observer restaurant critic in 1999. Rayner has also written several books. Tofu is a blank canvas for the flavours it carries’: deep-fried tofu and pepper. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer The other lesson took a couple of days to arrive, like high clouds spilling into a once blue summer sky. I gently found myself falling into the embrace of the Asian repertoire; into a noodle and rice-based menu of dishes drawing on the traditions of Japan and Thailand, India and the various provinces of China. Entirely plant-based food can come from any culinary tradition, but it’s always going to be easiest when there is no compromise; no cumbersome attempt to mimic or replace non-vegan ingredients.

That thoroughness is a function of Roden’s reluctance to stop researching. The book was 16 years in the making and was only eventually published because of an intervention by her American editor. Judith Jones, also responsible for shepherding the likes of Anne Frank, John Updike and Julia Child to publication, had to wrest it from her hands. “I just wanted to carry on travelling the world and talking to people,” Roden says now. I wanted to carry on travelling the world and talking to people

A big serving of closed-cap mushrooms for a fiver are long smoked to an almost meaty intensity and dressed with dollops of boisterous salsa verde; courgettes are grilled and served with chilli, mint and lemon. There is a white coleslaw full of crunch and salt and vinegar, and “crispy” potatoes the colour of polished gold, with undulations and crevices and curled bits. They aren’t just crisp, they are crispy. Each plate is a simple idea, expressed vividly and with care so that the key ingredient gets to shout its name.My family hates it, which just proves they’re ungrateful sods’: Jay’s version of the vermicelli pudding. Photograph: Jay Rayner A huge raft of crisp and chewy meringue layered with whipped cream and noodles of boozy chestnut purée’: Mont blanc gateau. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer But now they had their first child, a pregnancy which had encouraged in Cassie such a profoundly sweet tooth she started making fudge (stay with me; these things will all tie up eventually). Off to the West Midlands they went in search of affordable housing. Cassie set up Sweetmeat Inc, a fudge-making business on the high street in Stirchley just to the south of Birmingham city centre. James took cheffing jobs, but also cooked his Chinese food at pop-ups.