Jay Rayner Quartet

Best known as an Award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster, what is less well known is that Jay Rayner is also a very talented Jazz pianist!

As a journalist 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 currently writes for the Observer, where he is a feature writer and restaurant critic. He has won numerous awards, including Young Journalist of the Year (1992), Restaurant Critic of The Year (2001), Critic of the Year (2006) and the Derek Cooper Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism (2013). His broadcasting work as a presenter for the BBC has brought him a Sony gold as anchor of Papertalk, he has been nominated in the Commission for Racial Equality’s Race in the Media Awards for his reporting of race crime in Britain, and for the Mental Health Media awards for his work on mental health issues. 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. In 2012, Jay became the host of the award-nominated food panel show The Kitchen Cabinet for BBC Radio 4. As well as all of that he is also the author of four novels and three works of non-fiction; the most recent, A Greedy Man in a Hungry World, about the challenges of food security in the 21st Century, resulted in Jay being called to give evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs. As a performer Jay has toured his one man shows based on his writings in both the UK and the US. However, if all that wasn't enough Jay is also a jazz pianist of some skill and in 2012 he formed the Jay Rayner Quartet, playing a repertoire from the Great American songbook, including (unsurprisingly!) tunes around the theme of food and drink. Featuring the vocalist Pat Gordon-Smith, the excellent bass player Rob Rickenberg and their Special Guest 606 Club regular Dave Lewis (1 Up, John East Project) on sax.