Skip to content

Lunch with Jay Rayner

When

Event Status

He’s described a Gefilte fish dish as so leaden it could ‘pull planets out of alignment’ and wondered if a mussel shell contained ‘the retracted scrotum of a hairless cat’ – there is truly only one Jay Rayner.

The loved and feared London-based food critic has won a huge following in Britain thanks to his sometimes curmudgeonly, sometimes rapturous, usually hilarious and always entertaining restaurant reviews for the Observer. He’s been outspoken, too, on many food-related issues – from the suspicious elements of the organic movement to the scourge of ‘superfoods’.

In this intimate meal and conversation with Michael Williams, Jay will discuss his book, My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out, and share tales from his years eating out across the world.

Featuring

Jay Rayner

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster with a fine collection of floral shirts. He has written on everything from crime and politics, through cinema and theatre to the visual arts, but is best known as restaurant critic for the Observer. For a while, he was a sex columnist... Read more

Michael Williams

Michael Williams joined Sydney Writers’ Festival in September 2020, as the Artistic Director navigating the post-pandemic landscape going into the 2021 festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne; as its founding Head of Programming in 200... Read more

Location

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, West Tower Suite

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins (West Tower Suite), 25 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000

More details

Stay up to date with our upcoming events and special announcements by subscribing to The Wheeler Centre's mailing list.

Privacy Policy

The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.