‘There is no doubt I have appetites. I like my dinner. And my lunch’: Jay Rayner on food, diet and cooking at home

I have never been thin, much as Elton John has never been understated and the Himalayas have never been flat. Like the Himalayas, I am simply built that way. There have been moments when I have been thin-adjacent, achieved through quite monstrous effort, both in the gym and the kitchen. Such achievements are meant, in our culture, to be celebrated, so hooray for me and all that. But generally, I have come to understand myself as a large man who will never buy slim-cut jeans. Those are for the others; for the ones whose bottoms were never named after branches of their family tree. There is no doubt I have appetites. I was a hungry child and a hungry adolescent. When I pitched for the Observer Magazine restaurant reviewing job 25 years ago, I made the point to the then editor that I already spent my own money in restaurants. I like my dinner. And my lunch. I would always be a large man whatever so-called career I stumbled upon.