Second Generation Food Critic Peter Dills Fashions His Following in a Web-Driven World

Pasadena’s Peter Dills, second-generation food critic and host of the popular TV and radio show “Dining with Dills,” says he is not at all threatened by the internet and the array of mobile apps that now help diners find great restaurants just by clicking a button.

In fact, Dills says he has managed to stay relevant as a food and restaurant reviewer precisely because he knows how to use the internet and social media to complement his radio and TV show.

“I think with the advent of Google and Yelp, the restaurant critic is kind of gone. It’s not as important as it was 20 years ago because people can find a lot of the information themselves on the internet,” Dills says. “Google and Yelp have changed the landscape for restaurant reviews and the restaurant critic.”

On the other hand, Dills believes there’s still opportunity for fun adventures on the radio and getting trusted, insider recommendations out to people about the places he has sampled.

“There are just so many restaurants out there. What I try to do is to find the best of the best and then I use Google as well,” he says.

Dills is not a big fan of Yelp.

“I don’t really use Yelp unless it’s something that I needed for an address or directions. You know, ‘Okay, how do I get to this restaurant?’” he says.

Dills broadcasts his radio show Sunday nights on KLAA AM830 and on KZSB AM1290 to an audience estimated at 500,000 listeners. The TV show airs on Charter Cable and he writes as the wine editor as well for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News and Pasadena Star-News.

Aside the from the radio, TV and newspaper gigs, Dills maintains a well-designed website, www.peterdills.com, where he makes good use of lots of online tools to get his message across and keep his audience engaged.

Any site visitor will have access to videos, podcasts, his earlier radio episodes, and lots of mouth-watering photos of the best dishes he comes across while working. Fans who might have missed a couple of his shows can always search among the podcasts on the site and catch up with the reviews at any time.

Dills also tells of a time when he first moved to Pasadena. There were only about worthwhile ten restaurants in the city when he started reviewing them, says the seasoned food critic.

He has seen many of these food places come and go, and he’s seen other critics working like he did and helping the community choose the right places. He says the internet has changed how that information is now being circulated.

“There are still a lot of people that are bloggers. It seems that everybody is an expert now. Twenty to 30 years ago, there were a handful of experts, people who wrote for newspapers and maybe even a newsletter. But now everybody is an expert,” he says.

Asked about how he reconciles doing food critic work on a sports radio station, Dills says he’s happy about the arrangement especially that his show comes when the Pasadena Angels game is off, and he gets many of the male listeners who, he has noticed, are surprisingly interested in food.

“It’s funny because when I started working there about a year ago, I thought, ‘Man, all I’m getting is men callers. When are all the women calling? They’re the ones that are supposed to be foodies’,” Dills says. “But if you really think about it, men go to the grocery store, men cook, I mean it works. It works being on the sports station.”

Dills says his show aiurs Sunday afternoons depending on the Angels game time. His Santa Barbara show airs on Thursdays at 12 noon on AM 1290 KZSB.  Even if you missed a show, you can catch all the action anytime at www.peterdills.com