You could say he has the best job in New Orleans: being paid to talk about food. As of Wednesday, Tom Fitzmorris has been doing it for 30 years.
Fitzmorris, host of “The Food Show,” celebrated his 30th anniversary on air Wednesday afternoon at WWL Radio. “I can hardly believe it myself,” he said at the start of the show, speaking into a vintage WSMB microphone, dusted off from his collection to pay homage to the radio station where his show got its start.
Over the past three decades, as Fitzmorris often reminds callers on air, the premise of “The Food Show” has been simple: talk about restaurants, eating, cooking, drinking, recipes – anything delicious.
Fitzmorris, the city’s leading restaurant critic since 1972, gives his opinions on his favorite places but encourages callers to do so as well. On Wednesday, that included some special guests and chef friends but was essentially like any other "Food Show" he's done over the past three decades.
When the show began on WSMB 1350 AM in 1988, Fitzmorris hosted the show from the radio station’s studios in the Maison Blanche building on Canal Street. His wife Mary Ann, the station’s former program director, hired him for the job. He’s survived station ownership, time slot and format changes - a given in the media industry - and has recently even transitioned to new technology. The weekday version of his show (airing 3 to 7 p.m.) airs on HD Radio, on WWL 105.3 FM's HD-2 channel, though Fitzmorris frequently hosts weekend versions of the show as well, on WWL 870 AM/105.3 FM.
A self-described radio historian, Fitzmorris says “The Food Show” now holds the record as the longest-running radio show in the city, besting fellow WSMB legends and comic cut-ups Roy Roberts and Jeff Hug, whose “Nut and Jeff” morning show lasted 27 years from the 1960s through the 1980s.
In addition to his radio show, Fitzmorris also publishes a website (nomenu.com) and sends out a daily email newsletter to thousands of subscribers, who follow his dining diary and make use of his recipes, reviews and a running list of the city’s open restaurants. The list became an invaluable resource after Hurricane Katrina as the city’s eateries contributed to the city’s rebirth.
His plans for celebrating the 30th anniversary Wednesday night also included eating, with some of his listeners paying for the opportunity to dine with him at Broussard’s restaurant as part of his long-running “Eat Club” dinner series.
Fitzmorris believes that his daily radio show is the only one of its kind in America devoted to food and drink, which is fitting given New Orleans’ reputation as a food capital.
“I think the obvious reason we get away with this show is that it’s New Orleans and New Orleans is America’s best eating place in the world,” he said Wednesday.