Toby Young
Toby Young
Toby Youngis a British journalist and educationalist. Young is the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. He served as a judge in seasons five and six of the television show Top Chef and co-founded the West London Free School...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionJournalist
good speeding ticket
My whole life, I've always done good things. I've never even had a speeding ticket - well, no, I had one speeding ticket.
british food judge outspoken people rather shows simon
I swear, I didn't really go in thinking, 'I'll be the Simon Cowell' of 'Top Chef.' I was just used to being a judge on British food shows where people are much more outspoken and rather rude. That's the culture over here.
absolutely incredibly people
'Top Chef' is a very smooth-running machine. All the people working there are incredibly professional and absolutely at the top of their game.
almost booked coming fantastic free joint kitchen opened recognized reviewing stuff wines
When I was writing my column, I would almost always be recognized when I was in a restaurant, even if I was reviewing it and had booked under a fake name, so free stuff would start coming out of the kitchen on a conveyer belt, fantastic wines would be opened at my table. Now I can't even get a reservation on the pizza joint on the corner.
literate people picked talked undergone
I've never been to a shrink. But my parents were very psychologically literate - my father had undergone Freudian analysis - and we often talked about other people in psychological terms, so I picked up a lot of that.
party self laughing
You know when you tell a self-deprecating story at a dinner party, everyone's laughing along with you? But then when someone else repeats that same story at another dinner party you feel they're all laughing at you?
owners masters describe-myself
I wouldn't describe myself as a master of anything.
humorous writing thinking
I really like the Observer. I think I'd love to have a column with a broad reach that would enable me to do some proper reporting, but keep it on sort of a humorous level. I've always had a very happy experience writing for them.
order pay mortgage
I've become a professional failure - in order to pay the mortgage I have to remain unemployed. Luckily, a disaster always seems to befall me at exactly the right moment.
father people parent
I've never been to a shrink. But my parents were very psychologically literate - my father had undergone Freudian analysis - and we often talked about other people in psychological terms, so I picked up a lot of that.
writing waiting pieces
I was once hired to write a column for 'The Guardian' and then got fired before I'd submitted my first one. That was unusual. Most newspapers wait until I've written at least one piece for them before firing me.
missing chef
I miss being fawned over by restaurateurs and chefs.
thinking america people
America thinks of itself as a meritocracy, so people have more respect for success and more contempt for failure.
school curriculum reason-why
There's no reason why you can't deliver a grammar-school curriculum to an all-ability intake.