I'M imagining food critic Jay Rayner sharpening his largest knife ready to lay into me for my raw, flaccid and bland questions.

But this TV presenter, author and Observer journalist is more like a warm, comforting venison stew than a dollop of ice-cold palate-cleansing sorbet between courses.

I'm speaking to Jay ahead of his My Dining Hell show in Lyme Regis, in which the bearded big-haired food critic will reminisce about some of his, how do we put this, more savage reviews.

Jay's regular job is food critic at the Observer and is famed for his scathing reviews of restaurants where he hasn't enjoyed his meal.

He said: "I realised I could have a lot more fun if I put together audio visual shows and in that way powerpoint becomes a second presenter.

"My Dining Hell comes from an ebook I have released which contains 20 of my worst restaurant reviews.

"The way I use powerpoint is similar to the way Dave Gorman does.

"I'm not saying I'm as funny as a stand-up comedian, but it works very well.

"The first part is 40 minutes of me ranting about things that I hate and going through six of my most hated restaurant experiences. All of them are in London!

"I'm not stupid - and I don't want to offend people."

So are all of these restaurants now ex-restaurants?

"Of the six that I talk about only two of them have gone.

"This idea that restaurant critics have enormous power isn't true.

"You should never underestimate the stupidity of people who are willing to spend money in these places."

Jay then talks me through the rest of the evening of 'dining hell'.

"I then send the audience off to he bar and encourage them to drink irresponsibly!

"They then come back and ask me a load of questions.

"I never know what anyone will say and it's very entertaining.

"I'll be very interested to see what I'll be asked in Lyme Regis."

London-based Jay has very strong links with Dorset and knows the county well.

He spent some happy family summer holidays at the Moonfleet Manor Hotel near Weymouth.

"I know Dorset pretty well because for seven years we came on holiday to Knowle House in Studland.

"We went to Moonfleet Manor for six summers , I think overall we've had about 11 or 12 summer holidays spent in Dorset.

"As a child I went to Milton Abbas for a Jewish summer camp."

I ask Jay how he picks the restaurants he ends up reviewing.

"I realise there is a growing divide between London and the rest of the country.

"I divide up the reviews with the Guardian's food critic and outside of London there are places you are not going to get anywhere in London.

"For example the Crab House Cafe in Weymouth is very unique. You're not going to find anywhere like that in the capital.

"I also really enjoyed the Brassica restaurant in Beaminster.

"I think people get a bit tired when you bang on about a restaurant, like I have with the Riverside restaurant in West Bay."

The best advice Jay would give to any budding food critic is to start writing about anything at first.

"I get a lot of people emailing me saying 'I like food, how do I get your job?

"I say to them, the first thing is that you have to be a writer.

"In my time the only thing I've never written about is sport.

"I cut my teeth writing about everything. There are so few food critic jobs around that you have to start off by being able to write.

"My newspaper doesn't employ me to sell restaurants, it employs me to sell newspapers."

And writing obviously runs in the family, with Jay's late mother none other than journalist, broadcaster and agony aunt Claire Rayner.

Jay said all the meals at restaurants he reviews are paid for and when he books, he does so under a pseudonym.

His particular bugbear about eating out in the UK at the moment is gastropubs, he says.

"There are a number of gastropubs in this country who all do the same menu.

"Things like rump steak, seabass and chocolate tart for dessert."

Jay's repertoire is super-sized these days, with his weekly columns supplemented by writing in the Observer Food Monthly and TV and radio.

He regularly appears on BBC1's The One Show reporting on food and drink and is chairman of the Radio 4 culinary panel show The Kitchen Cabinet.

He said: "I've done a few good years on the One Show and Kitchen Cabinet is on at 10.30am on Saturdays. It's an awful lot of fun.

"But the main TV I do now is Masterchef judging and a lot of people seem to know me from that."

Another very long string to Jay's bow is writing books.

His Jewish saga novel, Day of Atonement, has just been released as an ebook in time for Jewish festival Yom Kippur.

So for someone who's so keen on eating out is his kitchen at home an abandoned shell, I ask.

"The stuff we have at home is the kind of stuff most families have.

"I think people have visions of us eating roast swan and braised otter!

"I really like cooking but I can be slightly obsessive.

"I hate dishwashers though, especially when everything you need to use is in there and you haven't even run it yet."

*Jay Rayner, My Dining Hell is at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Thursday September 24.