'This is Rayner at his rambunctious best: upfront, full-fat, and always deliciously written.' Nigella Lawson 'A sophisticated palate and a fiery, comic tongue. Jay Rayner's food writing is brilliant.' Stanley Tucci Why are gravy stains on your shirt at the dinner table to be admired? Does bacon improve everything? And is gin really the devil's work? In this rollicking collection of his hilarious columns, the award-winning writer and Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner answers these vital questions and many, many more. They are glorious dispatches, seasoned in equal measure with both enthusiasm and bile, from decades at the very frontline of eating. 'Deliciousness served up in book form.' Philippa Perry 'Wonderfully funny, foodie and perfectly short.' Tom Kerridge

'Hilarious, informative, enlightening, instructive ... It's the funniest book I've read all year' - Chris Evans You're About to Die. What Would Your Final Meal Be? This question has long troubled Jay Rayner. But why wait for death? Why not eat your 'last meal' now, when you can enjoy it? So, he had a simple plan: he would embark on a journey through his life in food in pursuit of the meal to end all meals. It's a quest that takes him from necking oysters on the Louisiana shoreline to forking away the finest French pastries in Tokyo, and from his earliest memories of snails in garlic butter, through multiple pig-based banquets, to the unforgettable final meal itself. This is the story of one hungry man, in eight courses. 'Witty, wise, and, obviously, delicious.' Guardian 'A raucous, joyous celebration of life.' Irish Times

Includes Le Cinq, Beast and Farm Girl Café, and a new introduction by the author.

Jay Rayner isn't just a trifle irritated. He is eye-gougingly, bone-crunchingly, teeth-grindingly angry. And admit it, that's why you picked up this book, isn't it?

Because you aren't really interested in glorious prose poems celebrating the finest dining experiences known to humanity, are you? You want him to suffer abysmal cooking, preferably at eye-watering prices, so you can gorge on the details and luxuriate in vicarious displeasure.

You're in luck. Revel in Jay's misfortune as he is subjected to dreadful meat cookery with animals that died in vain, gravies full of casual violence and service that redefines the word 'incompetent'. He hopes you enjoy reading his reviews of these twenty miserable meals a damn sight more than he didn't enjoy experiencing them.

"A hilarious and insightful journey into the world of restaurant meals."--Mario Batali

"Nobody goes to restaurants for nutritional reasons. They go for the experience. And what price a really top experience?"

What price indeed? Fearlessly, and with great wit and verve, award-winning restaurant critic Jay Rayner goes in search of the perfect meal. From the Tokyo sushi chef who offers a toast of snake-infused liquor to close a spectacular meal, to Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas where Robuchon himself eagerly watches his guest's every mouthful, to seven three-star Michelin restaurants in seven days in Paris, Rayner conducts a whirlwind tour of high-end gastronomy that will thrill the heart--and stomach--of any armchair gourmand. Along the way, he uses his entree into the restaurant world to probe the larger issues behind the globalization of dinner.

Riotously funny and shrewdly observed, "The Man Who Ate the World" is a fascinating look at the business and pleasure of fine dining.

I have been a restaurant critic for over a decade, written reviews of well over 700 establishments, and if there is one thing I have learnt it is that people like reviews of bad restaurants. No, scratch that. They adore them, feast upon them like starving vultures who have spotted fly-blown carrion out in the bush. They claim otherwise, of course. Readers like to present themselves as private arbiters of taste; as people interested in the good stuff. I'm sure they are. I'm sure they really do care whether the steak was served au point as requested or whether the souffle had achieved a certain ineffable lightness. And yet, when I compare dinner to bodily fluids, the room to an S & M chamber in Neasden (only without the glamour or class), and the bill to an act of grand larceny, why, then the baying crowd is truly happy. Don't believe me? Then why, presented with the chance to buy this ebook filled with accounts of twenty restaurants - their chefs, their owners, their poor benighted front of house staff - getting a complete stiffing courtesy of the sort of vitriolic bloody-curdling review which would make the victims call for their mummies, did you seize it with both hands?

Britain's culinary Moses brings us the new foodie rules to live by, celebrating what and how we eat The Ten Commandments may have had a lot going for them, but they don't offer those of us located in the 21st Century much in the way of guidance when it comes to our relationship with our food. And Lord knows we need it. Enter our new culinary Moses, the legendary restaurant critic Jay Rayner, with a new set of hand-tooled commandments for this food-obsessed age. He deals once and for all with questions like whether it is ever okay to covet thy neighbour's oxen (it is), eating with your hands (very important indeed) and if you should cut off the fat (no). Combining reportage and anecdotes with recipes worthy of adoration, Jay Rayner brings us the new foodie rules to live by.

"A hilarious and insightful journey into the world of restaurant meals."--Mario Batali

"Nobody goes to restaurants for nutritional reasons. They go for the experience. And what price a really top experience?"

What price indeed? Fearlessly, and with great wit and verve, award-winning restaurant critic Jay Rayner goes in search of the perfect meal. From the Tokyo sushi chef who offers a toast of snake-infused liquor to close a spectacular meal, to Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas where Robuchon himself eagerly watches his guest's every mouthful, to seven three-star Michelin restaurants in seven days in Paris, Rayner conducts a whirlwind tour of high-end gastronomy that will thrill the heart--and stomach--of any armchair gourmand. Along the way, he uses his entree into the restaurant world to probe the larger issues behind the globalization of dinner.

Riotously funny and shrewdly observed, "The Man Who Ate the World" is a fascinating look at the business and pleasure of fine dining.