William Sitwell is a British food and travel writer, MasterChef UK judge and restaurant critic for The Telegraph. Known as much for his love of authentic cuisine as his witty, sometimes provocative and occasionally controversial views, he joins ABC Radio host Richard Fidler for a conversation about a life in food.
In his most recent book, The Restaurant: A History of Dining Out, he takes readers on a gastronomic journey over the last 2000 years – venturing into the inns and taverns of Pompeii before their destruction in AD79; revealing the tumultuous emergence of fine dining during the French Revolution; and exploring the result of technological innovations on the rise of McDonald’s.
A detail from the cover of the 2023 nonfiction book The Restaurant - A History of Eating Out by food writer and critic William Sitwell Photo: Diversion Books
The result is a lively, discursive amble through the social and culinary history of eating out, ranging from the influence of Elizabeth David, to the effect of the dissolution of the monasteries, and the revolution in UK cuisine since the 1960s.
As the editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine (until his departure after he made a joke about “killing vegans”), Sitwell broadened the range of commentators and contributors. But his attempt to get Sir Les Patterson (one of the many alter egos of Australian comedian Barry Humphries, creator of the more famous Dame Edna Everage) fell at the last hurdle.
“I was very privileged to know Barry Humphries since he became a friend of my family’s. He was a fan of my grandfather Sir Sacheverell Sitwell [a brother of the famous poet Edith]. I remember staying at my grandfather’s house and I saw these postcards from Edna on the kitchen table. My grandfather’s housekeeper Gertrude was talking about how this strange person kept on writing to my grandfather calling herself Dame Edna Everage. This was in the late ‘80s when Edna ruled the airwaves. She was the Queen of the Saturday night’s TV schedules. But Gertrude and her husband only really watched wrestling, and switched the television off in the evening.”
Photo: Eva Rinaldi
Sitwell was very keen to get Barry Humphries to visit, and sign some books. “He became a good friend, and my father persuaded Edna to open our village flower show a couple of times. We had this old coach from the early 19th-century, and Barry as Edna stepped into it, did this very long tour around the top of the garden, and stepped out where he’d gotten into it, and looked out on these old ladies of the village. And then said, “As I look around today, I see a beautiful array of flowers, and one or two cactuses.’ Barry had written this poem that ended, ‘As for me, I’m no ordinary mother and wife, I was Dame Edith Sitwell in a previous life.’”
Sitwell thought this was magical, and he interviewed Barry as Edna and talked to her back in the house. “Just me and Edna. It was surreal because he completely became that character. It was fascinating. Anyway, I asked Barry if Sir Les Patterson would write a piece for Waitrose Food Illustrated. A tribute to Australian cheese, perhaps. And he wrote this diabolically disgusting piece. It was absolutely fantastic! One of the great lines was when he talked on a stopover somewhere he showed an air hostess his 'blue mauve vein.' And needless to say, Waitrose refused to publish it!”
About the speaker
Photo: Simon & Schuster
William Sitwell
William Sitwell is one of Britain’s leading food writers. He is restaurant critic for The Telegraph and a longstanding judge on the BBC show MasterChef. He has written a number of books including A History of Food in 100 Recipes, The Restaurant; A History of Eating Out, and Eggs or Anarchy. William also runs the world’s smallest wine store, William’s House Wines, has a monthly newsletter, Eat Well, Sip Well, Live Well and runs the Sitwell Supper Club at his home in West Somerset.
This session is broadcast thanks to the generous help of the Auckland Writers Festival held in May 2023
Photo: Auckland Writers Festival
