Meet Host Merrill Shindler
Specials : Episode FLFLC-SP01
Merrill Shindler, editor of the Zagat Survey for almost two decades, restaurant critic for numerous newspapers, and host of a twice-weekly program on CBS Radio's 97.1 FM on how much fun it is to put things in your mouth — is the quintessential Fine Living Critic. He has written and spoken about his various oral fixations and lifestyle indulgences, both in America and abroad for most of his adult life.
Shindler began his career in the early 1970s as the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, a position that led, inexplicably, to three years as music editor at Rolling Stone Magazine. He has written about "livin' large" as restaurant critic for San Francisco Magazine, and The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, along with covering the world of chow for The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Diversion, Food Arts, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit, to name a few. Shindler the Critic has been known for his bigger-than-life lifestyle in Hollywood circles as well as in the media, from interior design and architectural magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Interiors Magazine and others as well.
Shindler also spent ten years as film critic for Los Angeles Magazine before discovering that he preferred eating dirt to sitting through another Pauly Shore movie. He has written hundreds of hours of syndicated television and radio shows, including American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, which he has written since 1979.
He is the author of a variety of books, including American Dish, a volume that takes Jell-O and Frito pie very seriously, El Cholo: A History, The Best Restaurants of Los Angeles Under $10 and The Herald Examiner Guide to the Best Restaurants of Los Angeles.
Perhaps most importantly, Shindler likes to describe himself as "just a big ole hungry boy, whose main object in life is figuring out where to eat next... and then what to do with himself." He firmly believes that French fries are nature's most perfect food, that ketchup really does qualify as a vegetable... and that both go beautifully with a Le Montrachat Grand Cru chilled to 49 degrees F.
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