Author(s): Jay Rayner

Fiction

Marc Basset, restaurant critic for a national newspaper, has made vitriol his trademark. His vivid cruelty makes his many readers laugh – until, one day, a chef roasts himself to death in his bread oven, leaving behind Bassett’s scathing review of his restaurant stuck to the door. When Marc learns of the chef’s suicide, he experiences an entirely new remorse. And, by apologising to the wife and daughter of the deceased, he begins to experience levels of self-satisfaction that even he never thought possible.