Jay Rayner on Chewing the Fat

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has been the restaurant critic for The Observersince 1999 (garnering millions of views per year), has presented the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show The Kitchen Cabinet for over a decade and is the author of a dozen books, most recently My Last Supper and Chewing the Fat. His varied television work includes his role for 15 years as a critic on MasterChef, food reporting for the BBC's The One Show and forming part of the expert panel on Top Chef Masters in the US. In March 2023 he was named Critic of the Year, in the UK Press Awards. His new book Nights Out At Home is a love letter to his favourite eating houses, in which he serves up recipes inspired by the superb dishes that have stolen his heart over the decades, giving home cooks the chance to experience the best of that food for themselves.

Dr Annie Gray is one of Britain’s leading food historians. She works as a broadcaster, author and consultant. You may have heard her on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, or seen her cooking up Victorian pies or Tudor stuffed boars’ heads on the BBC. Her books include The Greedy Queen: eating with Victoria, Victory in the Kitchen: the life of Churchill’s Cook, and the forthcoming At Christmas We Feast: Festive Food through the Ages. Annie is also a consultant for the award-winning English Heritage YouTube series, The Victorian Way, as well as working widely across the heritage industry. She's a research associate at the University of York and a Fellow of the Royal History Society.