Former News Tribune food critic Sue Kidd dies of cancer at 52
Sue Kidd, a long-time food critic and editor for The News Tribune, died Tuesday. She was 52.
Kidd died from an aggressive form of cancer, according to her family.
She was known in the South Sound as a fearless advocate for readers as well as for her dogged pursuit of all things related to food.
“The food and dining section is the communal table where we can find unity in carnitas, bibimbap and which restaurant really grills the best steak in Tacoma,” Kidd wrote in 2019.
Kidd graduated with a journalism degree from Western Washington University in 1993. She began her restaurant writing career in 1997 at the King County Journal.
She landed at The News Tribune in 2004. Hired as an editor, she took over the newspaper’s dining blog, TNT Diner, in 2009. As the newspaper industry consolidated in the 2010s, she became a full-time food writer.
“What better way to connect with one another than through a conversation about food?” she wrote.
BORN IN AUBURN
Suzanne Kidd was born on Dec. 4, 1969 to Wanda and Gerald Kidd in Auburn. She was the middle of three sisters.
“She was the gifted one,” older sister Dianne Rutherford said Wednesday. “She really was smart. Her writing was incredible.”
As a child or an adult, if Sue Kidd was in a room, everyone knew it.
“She just was very opinionated, very colorful, very loud,” Rutherford said.
Her love for offbeat food stood out at a young age.
“She used to eat some really weird food combinations that we could never quite figure out,” said younger sister Melissa Gerber. “She would hollow out cantaloupe and put cottage cheese in it and then put bananas on it.”
Kidd’s concern for her family, friends and co-workers was renowned. Those traits emerged in her youth, her sisters said.
“She was always the champion of the underdog,” Gerber said. “She collected people that needed fixing.”
A CAREER IN FOOD
Kidd spent nights and weekends prowling the South Sound’s food establishments, from upscale restaurants to taco trucks. During the day, she could be found at her newsroom desk, surrounded by menus and cookbooks, fact checking details or interviewing chefs.
“I know I ask a lot of questions,” Kidd said in 2019. “Asking lots of questions makes a reporter a better writer.”
As a food editor, Kidd spent weeks each November gathering Thanksgiving recipes from readers and testing them in her Puyallup kitchen. One year, she cooked three turkeys using three different methods.
“In the TNT newsroom, she was a force of nature,” longtime friend and co-worker Sean Robinson said Wednesday. “You didn’t have to look for her — you couldn’t miss her. All you had to do was follow the noise of her big laugh.”
As a critic, Kidd dined at restaurants anonymously. She used credit cards with aliases, had other diners ask probing questions of waiters and took food photos only when restaurant owners and staff weren’t looking.
“I have no idea what she even looks like,” said longtime Tacoma restaurateur Gordon Naccarato on Wednesday. “She’s totally anonymous, and I respected that about her. It was nice to deal with someone with such integrity.”
Her coyness in the restaurant setting was a 180-degree spin from her personality.
“She was this larger-than-life personality — and dominated any room — and yet, when you’d go out with her, no one knew who she was,” TNT columnist and editorial page editor Matt Driscoll said Wednesday.
Friends and family were frequently admonished to never post a picture of her on social media or any other public forum.
Kidd adhered to the strictest standards of her craft. She would give a full review of a restaurant only after visiting it on three different occasions.
“My advice to readers consistently has been that we should be more deliberate in our criticism of restaurants,” Kidd said. “The lure of the angry Yelp review is easy when a restaurant fails you. Thinking critically about restaurants and paying a return visit is tougher.”
She responded to every reader query and never backed down from a restaurant owner who didn’t like a review. She recognized the power of digital media before most in the industry and built the newspaper’s dining brand into one of its major drivers.
Aside from her journalistic skills, Kidd was the person in the newsroom who organized reunions, going-away events and food chains for co-workers dealing with illnesses and other crises.
She was also an advocate for women and interns.
“She always organized gatherings of current and former TNT female reporters, and she always looked so happy at the table to see everyone there,” said longtime TNT reporter and former business editor Debbie Cockrell. “She just had such a big heart.”
STARTING OVER
In 2011, she met Paul Nimz, a nursing home administrator with two boys. He was drawn to her energy. The two started dating after she recovered from thyroid cancer.
“She had absolute lightning coming out of her, about everything we talked about,” Nimz said Thursday. “An absolute passion — if we’re talking about food, politics, anything. She was just so excited about life and the things she loved. And things she hated.
“She was a kindred spirit. I found my other half.”
In 2019, Kidd left the TNT to work for the city of Fife in the communications and marketing office.
“She quickly became so much more than an employee to the city, especially to me,” said manager Kelsey Geddes. “Her passion and knowledge for her craft, especially her storytelling, was inspiring.”
Kidd started her own independent food blog, Dine Pierce County, funded by reader donations. There, she continued the same review work she pursued at The News Tribune, but at a slower pace.
“I know my labor has benefited small business owners because they tell me so,” Kidd wrote Sunday. “I love writing about the scrappy underdog.”
Kidd was diagnosed in early February. She knew her cancer was not curable but hoped treatment could bring her back to a semblance of health. Instead, her condition rapidly deteriorated.
“She just never even got to the real fighting part,” Rutherford said.
On Saturday, Kidd and Nimz were married in her room at Tacoma General Hospital with family present.
“It was the last truly happy, shining moment we had,” Nimz said. “I think she saved up all her energy for that day.”
On Sunday, Kidd notified her blog readers she would be taking a sabbatical.
“This is not a goodbye,” she said.
Along with Nimz, Kidd is survived by her sisters, their families and an adult child.
Services are pending.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Former News Tribune food critic Sue Kidd dies of cancer at 52."
