Introduction
William Ronald Sacheverell Sitwell (born 2 October 1969) is a British editor, writer and broadcaster.
Life and work
Sitwell is the grandson of Sacheverell Sitwell, the British writer and critic, the great-nephew of Edith Sitwell, poet and critic, and is the heir presumptive to the Sitwell Baronetcy. He was educated at Eton College and the University of Kent, where he 'wrote a stupid kind of gossip column in the student newspaper.'
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).
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. The row caused much controversy over free speech and whether making an offensive joke was a sackable offence. Sitwell later met Nelson in person to apologise. 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. In April 2020 he appeared as a guest in an episode of the MasterChef TV programme, challenging contestants to produce "a plant-based dish".