02-12-2016
A detail of the cover of "The Ten (Food) Commandments" by Jay Rayner, restaurant critic and food-writer from London, a sarcastic journey through the obsessions of food modernity. The book (160 pages) was originally published by Penguin. The Italian edition was published by EDT. You can buy it online at a discount (11.48 euros instead of 13.50)
«For my sister Amanda, who had to budge up at the table when I arrived». This is the dedication opening Jay Rayner’s “The Ten (Food) Commandments”. The author, 50-year old Londoner of Jewish ancestry, is a journalist and restaurant critic (for The Observer), radio and television presenter (BBC) and musician (he’s the pianist in the Jay Rayner Jazz Quartet). In this eclecticism there’s a constant element: wit – sometimes British, sometimes more improper -, a characteristic that makes Rayner one of the most appreciated food authors in the recent past. The target of the latest pamphlet is food-obsessed contemporaneity. The idea is not new. Yet the point of view is innovative: «If he [God] was genuinely perfect», the author warns in the preface, «he would also have to have been the perfect dinner guest», capable of saying: «‘No crab for me please’ and ‘You know full well I don’t do cheese burgers’ […]». Which means «we need our very own culinary Moses; someone with the scholarship, dignity, insight and teeth to stand in judgement on everyone else». Who can hand us, miserable people, “The dining tablets” [Le leggi della tavola is the subtitle given by Luca Iaccarino curator of the “Allacarta XL” series to the Italian edition].
Jay Rainer with the Italian interpreter Daniela Mondino and Luca Iaccarino, the curator of the Edt Italian edition
Rayner plays also as a jazz musician (photo by Shawn Pearce)
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt
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