'The health benefits are fantastic': Kate Lawlor-Lyne on how to add more fish to your diet
Kate Lawlor-Lyne, head chef at K O’Connell fish restaurant in Dunnes Stores, St Patrick’s Street, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins
'Fish is the healthiest fast food that you can buy.' It’s a point that well-known Cork chef Kate Lawlor-Lyne is keen to make and one that she puts into action every day, cooking casual but still classy fish dishes at the K O’Connell Fishmongers counter in Cork’s original Dunnes Stores.
While heading to a supermarket for lunch is not where you think you might find the healthiest (or the most delicious) options, any preconceived notions will be challenged if you head into the posh Dunnes on Pana, glide down to the basement and seek out the bright blue and gold counter in the food court space. Alongside a tempting display of fresh fish, seafood, and pre-made dishes for takeaway, Lawlor-Lyne has a short and fast menu, cooking fresh fish to order, and there’s an audience of dedicated lunchtime fish eaters happy to seek it out.
“They’re looking for freshness. They’re looking for flavour, and they’re looking for deliciousness,” says Lawlor-Lyne. “Our biggest sellers would be our chowder and fish and chips. But after that, our daily specials and our fish platter would come up. Not everybody wants deep-fried fish,” she says. “We try to have something that’s an alternative to that. With the warmer summer weather, we’re bringing in fish skewers with salads or a pan-fried salmon with a mixed leaf salad. My fish tacos have gone viral — they would be another big hit with people. They’re so good. They’re light, they’re summery, they’re fun and they’re really good value.”
We know that fish is good for us. According to Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s Seafood Nutrition Handbook, seafood is “a rich source of a variety of key nutrients and many species are high in protein, low in fat and saturated fat and all are good sources of vitamin B12. Oil-rich fish are also a key source of omega-3 fats that are important for our health”.
The HSE recommends eating two servings a week, one being oily fish, but it can be something people struggle to achieve.
Having Lawlor-Lyne cook your fish tacos (€12) or monkfish katsu curry (€14) or open a few Rossmore native Irish oysters from Cork harbour (€7 for three) right in front of you — be sure and grab one of the high stools at her counter — is a great way to demystify the whole world of fish cookery.
As the chef-owner of the well-regarded, much-loved Fenn’s Quay restaurant until its closure in 2017, Lawlor-Lyne has always been known for her support of local producers and her seasonal, ingredient-driven menus.
K O’Connell Fishmongers, which has been based in the English Market since 1962, was one of her suppliers. In 2018 O’Connell’s opened an outlet at Dunnes Stores in Bishopstown, followed by Patrick’s Street in 2024. For Lawlor-Lyne, who came on board in January 2025, the last 18 months have enabled her to communicate directly with her customers, something she has always relished.
“It’s been a great challenge and a very rewarding one because the business has grown, our counter has grown and so has our understanding of what people want. For me, it’s been a very good learning curve,” she says. “I love meeting customers and chatting with them, whereas previously I was behind the scenes [as a chef]. This is different. You get to know your customers and get to talk to them and know what they want, fish-wise.”
Sometimes, all it takes is customers watching Lawlor-Lyne making their lunch in her neat space to think about cooking fish for themselves. “When customers sit at the counter at K O’Connells they see us cooking dishes to order, and see how quickly prawns, sea bass, or even salmon cook,” she says. “[It gives] them inspiration and perhaps confidence to buy fish from the fresh fish counter. We have a perception that fish takes a lot of cooking, but it doesn’t, and our job is to help people realise fish is healthy fast food.”
IT MIGHT not be easy to find your way into cooking fish, but Lawlor-Lyne is good at clarifying things in the kitchen. When she taught cookery at Ashton Adult Education in Cork City, she gave students a way of approaching what looked like complicated dishes.
“When you read a recipe from some of the more famous chefs, you can get bogged down by the words they use to describe how to do things. But when you break it down into bullet points, it makes it a lot simpler. I think that’s where a lot of people do get turned off cooking fish... because it looks and seems more complicated than it really is.”
Working at the counter means that Lawlor-Lyne can also see how people react to menus — or specific terminology. At one stage, she had a dish on the menu with ramen in the description. “I put it up as ramen and people were like, ‘Nah,’ then I put up [the same dish] as fancy pot noodle and it walked out the door.”
For anyone who has a yen to include more healthy fish dishes in their diet, Lawlor-Lyne has a few recommendations. “By going to a fishmonger, you get more choice and advice. We’re there to give you help, tips … and suggestions on how you cook it, whether you’re going to use an air fryer, oven or pan-fry.”
When it comes to cooking, “the key thing would be a nice hot pan, a good knife, and just trust the process”.
“Fish is done in minutes, it’s enjoyable to cook, and you’ll feel better for it because it’s so light and the health benefits are fantastic.”
