Viva Brighton Issue #56 October 2017

INTERVIEW
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Andy Lynes
Food and drink writer
“I think we’re ready for a
Michelin Star. Brighton
hasn’t had one since 1974,
so it’s about time.”
So says Andy Lynes, and he
should know. As a freelance
food and drink writer, he
contributes regularly to
publications including
BBC Good Food, the Times,
the Telegraph and the
Independent. The writing
has become “sort of a substitute
for not becoming a
chef,” he explains. “Instead
of going into cooking
professionally, I applied
for MasterChef and got to
the semi-finals in 1997.
Then I thought: ‘What
can I do with this?’ and
decided to get into writing.
I became a founding
affiliate of eGullet [the
online restaurant-world
message board], which was
quite influential. People
like Anthony Bourdain,
Jay Rayner - all sorts of
people - used to congregate
on there.”
As well as travelling
constantly for work, he’s been keeping a close eye
on the local food scene, and is the creator and
co-founder of the Brighton’s Best Restaurants
Awards and the author of
Brighton’s Best Cookbook.
“Brighton’s food scene is
amazing,” he enthuses, but
admits that it wasn’t always
the case. “For as long I
can remember, there were
only five or six restaurants
that you’d want to eat in. It
was only when 64 Degrees
opened that that changed.
Chefs have told me that
they saw Michael (Bremner)
having success as Chef
Patron in Brighton, and
that there was a market for
that sort of food. That inspired
them to think ‘well,
we can do that too’. Up
until that point, there just
hadn’t been an audience.
That was about 2013, so
the Brighton food scene
has grown very fast since,
and it’s accelerating.”
The night before our
conversation, he’d been
dining at Clare Smyth’s
new restaurant, Core,
in Notting Hill, a place
he describes as “just
jaw-dropping. They’ve
obviously spent millions on the interior, they’ve
got a huge brigade of waiters and front-of-house
staff, the crockery and stemware is of the highest
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