F&D is delighted to welcome Lelia Gentle as our home cooking columnist. Her experience, expertise, and friendly voice bring a delightful addition to our roster. Lelia has been a prominent and influential part of Louisville’s food scene for more than four decades since she and her husband Stan opened St. Matthews Seafood Co. in 1979. As a fishmonger, food educator (current instructor at Cooking at the Cottage), restaurateur (Stan’s Fish Sandwich), farmer (DreamCatcher Farm) and farm market fixture (a long-time vendor and breakfast chef at the Original Bardstown Road Farmer’s Market), Lelia has deep personal connections across the spectrum of Louisville’s food scene — the folks who produce, who cook, and who consume. And we’re sure you will find inspiration in these Letters From Lelia’s Kitchen.

Letters from Lelia’s Kitchen

Fish for Lent…and Every Day

(This story originally appeared in the Spring 2023 print issue.)

Back in the early eighties, my husband Stan and I came to Louisville bringing our fresh fish and knowledge of the seafood industry to the area. The venturesome food community here happily greeted our small fishmarket and eagerly consumed our goods. But we were not prepared for what would happen during our first Lent here. Each Friday, we were literally besieged with demand for fish that far exceeded our usual supply. Although extremely knowledgeable about fish, we knew nothing about Lent! We were transplanted from the southern bible belt and were oblivious to the fact that Louisville was over fifty-two percent Catholic at the time, with a great percentage of them eating fish every Friday.

We quickly learned that in traditional Christian practices, the three pillars of Lent included prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The 4th century Council of Nicaea formalized the tradition of Lent. In Western churches Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides a forty-day period for fasting and abstinence, an imitation of the practice of Christ before the crucifixion.

Not sure exactly what the fasting part meant, we learned that a meal of fish displaces the more decadent meat options. The widespread mandate was to refrain from eating warm-blooded animals, which left fish up for grabs for the dinner plate because it was cold-blooded.

We should note that the rules for Lent and Good Friday were developed centuries ago, when meat was the choice food of celebrations — the fatted...Read more