Andy
Lynes edits the Metro newspaper's Good Taste food
and drink pages which appear every Tuesday. He is
a Glenfiddich Award nominated freelance writer specialising
in food, drink and travel. He contributes regular
food and drink themed travel articles and hotel reviews
to the Independent on Sunday and for three years wrote
the paper's Food of the Week column. Andy's work has
also appeared in The Times, Sainsbury's magazine,
Waitrose Food Illustrated, Independent on Sunday Review
magazine, History Today, Saab magazine and Scarlet
magazine.
He
has written cover features on ecological issues and
interior design for Restaurant magazine, to which
he also contributes regular chef interviews. He contributes
blogs and news items to William Reed's BigHospitality.com
website and has written several cover features for
Caterer and Hotelkeeper, including an exclusive interview
with top London restaurateur Nigel Platts Martin and
profiles of Michelin starred chefs Simon Rogan, Mauro
Colagreco and Simon Hulstone. He writes regularly
for the American trade publication Food Arts, most
recently identifying the new wave of modern British
cooking.
He
has contributed travel and restaurant features as
well as a monthly restaurant news page to the BBC's
olive magazine. He is the author and editor of Britain's
Finest Restaurants (www.britainsfinest.co.uk)
and is a regular guest restaurant critic for the London
Metro and on one occasion the Guardian. He contributed
to the 2007 and 2006 editions of the Square Meal restaurant
guide, the revised edition of the Oxford Companion
to Food and The AA's The Guest List, both published
in 2006.
Andy
is a judge on the Channel 4 series Iron Chef UK (www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/iron-chef)
and has appeared as a food pundit on the BBC's Breakfast
news programme and UK Food TV. In 2007 he was invited
to join Charles Campion, Alex James and Delicious
magazine editor Matthew Drennan on the Supreme Judging
Panel of the Great Taste Awards. From 2002-2007, Andy
was a member of the World's 50 Best Restaurants voting
panel.
As
web editor of foodradio.com,
Andy helped develop the site and contributed features,
news, blogs and other supporting copy for the station’s
programming. He created the “They Say, We Say,
You Say” book review format and edited and posted
contributors copy including nutritionist Sarah Shenker’s
eleven part weight loss plan.
He
is a former committee member of the Guild of Food
Writers and edited the Guild’s magazine Savour.
He was a founding affiliate of The eGullet Society
for the Culinary Arts and Letters (egullet.org)
where his many managerial duties included Dean of
The eGullet Culinary Institute, contributing editor
of The Daily Gullet and host of the UK forums.
He
was a judge of the final stages of the World Cheese
Awards in Dublin in 2008 and also helped judge the
Sommelier of the Year competition in London, also
in 2008. Andy is proud to say that he was a member
of the media team that won the 2008 All Bar One Beer
Challenge, beating a panel of experts that included
Pete Brown, author of Man Walks Into a Pub and master
Beer Sommelier Marc Stroobandt.
In
1997, Andy reached the semi-finals of BBC TV’s
Masterchef competition and in 2000, was the only British
competitor ever to participate in the prestigious
Trophee des amateurs gourmands held in Lyon. Andy
cooked in partnership with Michelin starred chef Bruce
Poole of Chez Bruce restaurant in London and competed
against other amateurs and their Michelin starred
chef mentors including Alain Dutournier of Restaurant
Carre des Feuillants in Paris and Jacques Pourcel
of Les Jardin des Sens in Montpellier. The event was
covered by Figaro magazine in France and the Independent
in the UK (click
here for the article).
Andy
has completed stages in numerous professional kitchens
including the Inn on the Park with Jean Christophe
Novelli, the Fifth Floor with Henry Harris, Chez Bruce
with Bruce Poole, Roscoff with Andy Rea, Le Pont De
La Tour with Tim Powell, Bibendum with Matthew Harris
and The Merchant House with Shaun Hill. He also worked
the cold appetiser section on a busy Saturday night
at chef Tom Coohill’s acclaimed Ciboulette restaurant
in Atlanta Georgia.
In
spring and summer 2010, Andy will deliver the Food
Media module of Brighton University's MA in Culinary
Arts and has appeared as a guest speaker at London
City University’s Food Writing course talking
about how to break into food writing. The story of
how he changed careers from BT auditor to food and
drink writer is to be told in Sarah Wade and Carole
Anne Rice’s Find
Your Dream Job published in January 2009.
Andy
lives in Brighton with wife Gill, son George, daughter
Alice and Lulu the German Shorthaired Pointer.
