William Sitwell

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William Ronald Sacheverell Sitwell DL (born 2 October 1969) is a British editor, writer and broadcaster. He is also a restaurant critic for The Daily Telegraph.

Life and work[]

Sitwell is the younger son of Francis Trajan Sacheverell Sitwell (1935-2004) and the grandson of writer and critic Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet. He is the great-nephew of writer Sir Osbert Sitwell, 5th Baronet and of poet and critic Dame Edith Sitwell. He is the heir presumptive to the Sitwell Baronetcy currently held by his elder brother Sir George Sitwell, 8th Baronet.^[1][2][3][4] He was educated at Eton College and the University of Kent, where he 'wrote a stupid kind of gossip column in the student newspaper.'^[5][6]

He is a regular on MasterChef UK as a quarter final judge. He sets the brief for one group of quarter finalists and acts as the third judge alongside John Torode and Gregg Wallace.

He has written several internationally successful books on food: Eggs or Anarchy: The Remarkable Story of the Man Tasked with the Impossible: to Feed a Nation at War (2016), A History of Food in 100 Recipes (2017), The Really Quite Good British Cookbook (2017), and The Restaurant: A 2,000-Year History of Dining Out (2020).^[7]

Controversy[]

He is the former editor of Waitrose Food. In 2018 freelance journalist Selene Nelson emailed Sitwell, suggesting features on vegan-friendly recipes. Sitwell replied "How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat?".

After Nelson made Sitwell's response public, Sitwell resigned.^[8][9] The row caused much controversy over free speech and whether making an offensive joke was a sackable offence.^[10] Sitwell later met Nelson in person to apologise.^[11] He has since joined The Daily Telegraph as a restaurant critic, and hosts a dining programme with the paper called William Sitwell's Supper Club.^[12][13] In April 2020 he appeared as a guest in an episode of the MasterChef TV programme, challenging contestants to produce "a plant-based dish".^[14]

In 2019 more controversy was to come Sitwell’s way when he wrote an article about a restaurant he had visited. He wrote in the Daily Telegraph that 104 Restaurant Notting Hill, a restaurant he reviewed, had made threatening calls to him.^[15]

of 104 Restaurant Notting Hill, took umbrage with William’s views in the Telegraph & took Sitwell to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).^{[16] [17]} Official Findings of the IPSO Committee stated

"The article had accurately reported the details of the contact between the author and complainant, as demonstrated by the recordings and screenshots provided by the publication to IPSO. The Committee acknowledged that the complainant did not agree with the newspaper’s characterisation of him as ‘threatening’. However the basis for characterising him as such was made clear in the article - the frequency and nature of the complainant’s communication. In these circumstances the newspaper had taken care over its characterisation of the complainant as “threatening”. The newspaper was entitled to characterise the complainant’s behaviour in this way, and doing so did not give rise to a significantly inaccurate or misleading impression of the complainant’s actions. There was no breach of Clause 1 on this point."

All charges were dismissed.^[18]

References[]

External links[]

• William Sitwell on The Daily Telegraph
• William Sitwell news and commentary on the Evening Standard