Jason Matthew Rayner (born 14 September 1966) is a British journalist and food critic. He worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday, and became the Observer restaurant critic from 1999 until 2024. He joined the Financial Times in November 2024 as their new food critic. Rayner is a judge on the British version of the cooking show MasterChef and has written several novels.

Early life

Rayner was born on 14 September 1966. He is the younger son of Desmond Rayner and journalist Claire Rayner. His family is Jewish. He was raised in the Sudbury Hill area of Harrow, London, and attended the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. He studied politics at the University of Leeds, where he was editor of the Leeds Student newspaper, graduating in 1988.

Career

Rayner worked as a freelance journalist after graduating, writing for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. In 1992, he was named Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. He worked as a feature writer for The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer before becoming the Observer restaurant critic in 1999. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many restaurants were forced to close, Rayner announced he would not publish negative reviews. He wrote: "That doesn't mean giving good reviews to bad places, or not including criticisms. It just means that if I can't be generally positive, I won't review and will move on." Rayner has written for magazines including GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and Granta. His first novel, The Marble Kiss, published in 1994, was shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. His second, Day of Atonement (1998) was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Prize for Fiction. His first non-fiction book, Stardust Falling, was published in 2002. His third novel, The Apologist, was published in 2004. In 1997, Rayner won a Sony Radio Award for Papertalk, BBC Radio 5 Live's magazine programme about the newspaper business, which he presented. He chairs BBC Radio 4's food panel programme The Kitchen Cabinet. Rayner is a judge on the UK version of MasterChef. He is the food reporter on the BBC magazine programme The One Show, and was on the panel of judges on the American programme Top Chef Masters. He appeared as a guest judge on the "UK" episode of The Final Table, season 1. Rayner hosts the Out to Lunch podcast in which he interviews a celebrity guest in each episode. In November 2024, it was announced that Rayner would be leaving The Observer, following its pending sale to Tortoise Media. Rayner revealed that one of the reasons he left was the "antisemites" he claimed were employed by The Guardian who made it "uncomfortable, at times excruciating" working for the papers. Rayner would join the Financial Times as their new restaurant critic, amid an expansion of its weekend food and drink coverage.

Personal life

Rayner was awarded the title Beard of the Year for 2011 by the Beard Liberation Front. He plays piano with his jazz ensemble the Jay Rayner Sextet.

Books

Fiction

Non-fiction

Awards