Anthony Dias Blue
Anthony Dias Blue was an American author, columnist, television and radio personality and the owner of a food and wine event company in Los Angeles, California.
Life
Anthony Dias Blue was born to Gertrud and Sidney Blue in Larchmont, New York on January 5, 1941, Blue attended Riverdale Country School and Amherst College, married Kathryn Koshland in 1967, had four children, and in 1978, moved to San Francisco.Career
Blue had a long-running feature spot on WCBS radio in New York City. The subject of the feature was restaurant reviews and lifestyle subjects, mostly associated with food. Later the program was expanded to include reporting about wine. Now called the Blue Lifestyle Minute, the feature has been on every day for more than 30 years. Blue received a James Beard Award for the Minute in 2001.A separate, localized version of The Blue Lifestyle Minute began airing in 1999 on KFWB in Los Angeles. In 2009, this feature moved to KABC along with the addition of a new weekend show called "The Taste Buds" co-hosted with Meridith May and Merrill Schindler. In 2014 Blue left KABC and moved The Blue Lifestyle Minute to KNX (AM) 1070. This brings Blue's listenership to over 200,000. He died in Los Angeles on December 25, 2023, at the age of 82.
San Francisco Competitions
Blue acquired the San Francisco International Wine Competition, the largest international wine competition in the US.In 2000 Blue launched the San Francisco World Spirits Competition which has become the second largest spirits competition in the world. It is the biggest in the US with more than 2500 entries in 2017.
Past publications
In 1978, Blue became West Coast Editor of Food & Wine magazine. In 1980, Blue became Wine and Spirits Editor of Bon Appétit Magazine, a position he held for 26 years. He also wrote a weekly syndicated wine column that appeared in the Bay Area, first in the San Francisco Chronicle and then in the San Jose Mercury News.For 10 years, Blue wrote and edited the Zagat Guide for northern California for his friend Tim Zagat, with whom he attended Riverdale.