Answers to big questions on food writing, restaurant reviewing and home cooking with the renowned MasterChef judge

We are absolutely delighted that alongside his new theatre tour, Masterchef favourite Jay Rayner is returning to Leeds where he studied at university. It will be a ‘more intimate’ evening at The Old Woollen, to celebrate the publication of his new cookbook, Nights Out In The Kitchen.

We can’t wait to meet Jay and gain an insight into his love of restaurants and his passion for great home cooking.

This event is part of Farsley Lit Fest and Jay will be signing copies of his beautifully written, warmly inspirational cookbook following the talk.

About the Book

Following his bestselling Nights Out at Home, Jay Rayner returns to the kitchen to offer more inspiration to roll up your sleeves and reach for your favourite knife

Nights Out in the Kitchen features an irresistible combination of recipes sparked by the dishes that Jay has fallen for during more than a quarter of a century as a restaurant critic, alongside 20 of his very own recipes; family favourites refined in his kitchen at home. From meatballs with braised spaghetti, to shaved fennel and lemon zest salad, tartiflette tart and slow cooked tandoori lamb shoulder.

As well as delicious recipes, Nights Out in the Kitchen is seasoned with stories which walk both sides of the ‘home’ and ‘away’ line in Jay’s life. From the problem with dinner parties and the route to a less painful Christmas lunch, through the lexicographical challenges facing a restaurant critic who wants to describe flavour without resorting to ‘mouth-watering’, ‘moist’ and ‘sumptuous’, to the burning question of whether, given the large number of wretchedly negative reviews he’s written, Jay might actually be a total scumbag.

About Jay Rayner

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written extensively across the British and international media as both feature writer and columnist on everything from crime and politics, to the arts and fashion. He was the Observer’s restaurant critic and feature writer from 1999 until February 2025, when he joined the Financial Times in the same role.

After studying politics at Leeds University, where he edited the student newspaper, he entered national newspaper journalism. In 1992 he was named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards, and has since been nominated for many more of the prestigious awards including as Food and Drink writer for three years in a row. In 2006 he won again, as Critic of the Year. He has been nominated for three Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards and in 2001 was named Restaurant Critic of the Year. In 2013, he received the Derek Cooper Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism from the Guild of Food Writers. In 2018, he was named Restaurant Writer of the Year in the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards, and in both 2023 and 2025 was again named Critic Of The Year, in the UK Press Awards.

As well as working for newspapers Jay has written for numerous magazines, including Granta,Esquire, GQ and Cosmopolitan and various US magazines including Gourmet, Food and Wine and Saveur. His feature writing is regularly syndicated across the world, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

His varied television work includes appearances as a judge in multiple series of Masterchef, and as part of the panel on BBC2’s Eating With The Enemy. He has presented two editions of Dispatches for Channel 4 and in the US he was a part of the expert panel on Top Chef Masters for Bravo, a spin-off from the hit TV show Top Chef. From 2009 to 2016 he was also the resident food pundit for The One Show. In 2012 he became the host of the food panel show The Kitchen Cabinet for BBC Radio 4, which has broadcast over 200 episodes to audiences of more than two million. In 2019, he launched the Out To Lunch podcast, in which he interviews the famous and infamous over a great restaurant meal.

He is the author of four novels and eight works of non-fiction. In September 2024, to mark his 25 years as the Observer’s restaurant critic, he published his first cookbook, Nights Out At Home, which became a Sunday Times bestseller.

Description supplied by the event organiser.