THE last time The Observer's restaurant critic Jay Rayner was in York, he found food heaven in the form of Skosh in Micklegate, where Neil Bentinck’s "clever, delicious and often brilliant cooking" had him "rampaging through the menu like an elephant on heat".

"Right now Skosh – taken from the Japanese sukoshi for “a little” or “small amount” – is, I think, the ideal of what an ambitious, independent restaurant should be," he wrote, enthusing over Bentinck's uncommon wit and a distinct appetite to feed that leaves you giggling at the emptied porcelain while mourning the passing of its contents.

High praise indeed. "I really did think it was stunningly good, world beating in parts, and I loved the mood of the place," says Rayner, ahead of his return to York on Thursday, armed with his Ten (Food) Commandments at the Theatre Royal.

"Thou must go to Skosh" is not among those commandments, but plenty have taken him at his word – "Buy a train ticket. Now," he advised – and booking a weekend table weeks, even months, in advance, is pretty much essential.

"When I was up in Pocklington doing this show, I was looking at places to eat in York, as I'm aware that people say I don't go out of London enough to do reviews, and sometimes you just have to go to places on a hunch," says Rayner.

Good, because York's restaurant scene has a momentum never previously associated with a city more famous for its chocolate bars. What better timing could there be for "our very own culinary Moses to attempt to lead us to the edible promised land" with his audio-visual romp at the Theatre Royal.

Rayner, Masterchef judge and chairman of BBC Radio 4's Kitchen Cabinet, will explain why thou shalt always eat with thy hands; why thou should most definitely worship leftovers; why thou must celebrate the stinkiest of foods and why thou must honour thy pig" in his guide to the very best way to eat now.

The show takes the form of two contrasting halves, the first structured, as if following a recipe, the second improvised from fresh ingredients. "The 55-minute first half is very much rehearsed, built around the videos and based on the book of the same name, but devised without a script, and we then start the second half with me asking people to tell me their own food commandments, which can turn into something of a Quaker meeting," says Rayner.

York Press:

Command performance: Jay Rayner's food rules

"You do get some very strange insights into people's eating habits, like 'thou shalt always make a sandwich out of left-over Easter eggs', and I'll say, 'what you get up to in your own home is fine but I don't think we can make that a law'."

Flamboyant and larger than life, Rayner is "absolutely comfortable" on stage, just as he is in a television or radio studio. "I'm not saying there aren't nerves, but if you look back, I started off doing The One Show on Friday nights each week in the late-Noughties; I've done book launches, and so the BBC Radio 4 show [Kitchen Cabinet] didn't feel like too much of a leap," he says.

His first tour show, Greedy Man In A Hungry World – premiered at the Malton Food Festival incidentally – emerged in the wake of the publication of Rayner's book of that title. "I knew it was fodder for panel discussions at literature festivals, but I can't bear them, so I devised the show as a way to avoid them," he says.

Now, he has added The Ten (Food) Commandments to his repertoire, for maybe 40 to 50 shows a show, and then there are his jazz gigs on the piano with The Jay Rayner Quartet. No need to pack a piano, all he requires is "my bag, my laptop and off we go".

Given the lists of ten food commandments that Rayner has been sent in response to his own commandments, he is contemplating writing a second volume. "I always like to have a book on the go, but it is a six-month commitment, and there's the other things to consider, like the Radio 4 show," he says. Not to mention the jazz gigs, the live shows and the restaurant reviewing that could discover the next Skosh.

And take note, contrary to the stereotype of restaurant critics, Jay Rayner is not out to stick the knife in. "If people tell me, 'this place is really bad, you must review it', I'm less inclined to go because what's the point?" he says. "Four fifths of my reviews are positive, or more than middling; only one fifth are bad."

Jay Rayner: The Ten (Food) Commandments, York Theatre Royal, Thursday, 7.30pm, including a Q&A and book signing. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk /