MasterChef's Jay Rayner brings Last Supper show to Edinburgh

Award-winning restaurant critic, MasterChef judge and prominent foodie, Jay Rayner is visiting Edinburgh to ask audiences the question: If you had one meal left, what are you going to have?

Next weekend Jay Rayner will explore last suppers with the Capital (Pic: Levon Biss)

Following on from his book, My Last Supper: One Meal, a Lifetime in the Making, the man who has made a living eating out in restaurants will bring the show to the Capital’s Assembly Rooms in George Street next Saturday.

Rayner’s tales throughout tell of pinnacle moments in his life, defined by different cuisines, and the show’s idea overall appeases our appetites for the morbid fascination of death row’s last suppers.

And it’s not just Jay taking centre stage, as part of the performance he examines the audience’s pick of their own last meals.

He added: “When people come up with their last suppers during the shows, some people’s choices are so grandiose, but the ones that interest me are the ones that are those who will have a specific meat pie from that place over there and finish with their mum’s trifle.

“I think the fascination with last suppers is something more gluttonous, not all the time, but it’s not really about what you would have, it’s what you would have if nobody was watching, if there was no consequences, if you could have anything and not hate yourself the next day, what would it be and what would that say about your story.

“I went through the academic literature on last suppers, you have to think why are we doing this, very few of the pieces admit that they can’t tell how much of the meal was eaten.

“What we’re interested in is what they had and there are a number of books on it.”

The show will be Jay’s fifth visit to Scotland this year and hopes to make it to six trips by the end of the year.

He concluded: "The great thing about restaurants is the conversation, if you want people to talk openly, food is the way to get them to do it."