Longtime food critic, radio personality and newspaper editor in South Jersey Ed Hitzel has died. He was 64.
His wife Susan said he died Monday night while dining with friends.
Hitzel had worked as assistant managing editor for features and assistant Sunday editor for The Press of Atlantic City.
After leaving The Press in the early 1990s, he became editor of his own publication, Ed Hitzel's Restaurant Magazine.
He also hosted the Hitzel's Table for One radio show on WOND-1400 AM and WIP-610 AM in Philadelphia for 20 years.
Paul Merkoski, former executive editor of The Press, said Hitzel truly loved food, and pushed unsuccessfully for the newspaper to build a test kitchen so he could recreate reader-submitted recipes.
Friends like Ed Blake of Blake & Associates Professional Employment Services remembered his friend of 25 years as a great guy and summer neighbor along the Jersey Shore.
