Father Jim Sichko has parlayed many of the skills he uses as a published author and priest—relationship building and public speaking among them—into running his new business, Miss Marie’s Spaghetti Sauce. Sichko’s mother, Marie Sichko, came up with the recipe for the spaghetti sauce years ago. He had planned to have a small batch of the sauce bottled for her 90th birthday “as a surprise gift for her and her lady friends,” Sichko said, but she passed away in early 2017 at age 88.
So, he decided to share her culinary gift with the world by crafting and bottling the sauce in her honor. Sales of Miss Marie’s all-natural spaghetti sauce launched this past August and the reception has been positive. Within six weeks of launch, a second manufacturing order of 4,000 bottles had been placed, along with a third run of gallon containers for restaurants and caterers. “Miss Marie’s sauce has taken off like wildfire,” Sichko said. Proceeds of sauce sales benefit Southeast Texas Hospice in Orange, Texas, where his mother lived, and the Diocese of Lexington’s 2018 Annual Appeal.
To get the product in the hands and kitchens of consumers, Sichko sought and received expertise from three culinary business owners in Lexington: chef and restaurateur Ouita Michel, Alissa Lundergan Tibe of Lundy’s Catering, and Nancy Ward of Ward’s Kentucky Specialties. “They embraced the dream and allowed me to run with it, giving me direction,” he said.
The sauce is a Kentucky Proud product, bottled and packed at Bluegrass Superior Foods in Louisville and distributed by Lexington-based Box Stop. Miss Marie’s Spaghetti Sauce is available online at missmariesspaghettisauce.net, as well as locations around Lexington including Benedictus Book Store, Critchfield Meats, L.V. Harkness & Co., the MouseTrap, Two Chicks and Co., Windy Corner Market and the giftshops at Blue Grass Airport and Griffin Gate Marriott.
“It’s good for pizza sauce. It’s good for dipping cheese sticks, for stuffed peppers and for Bloody Marys,” Sichko said.
Father Jim Sichko
Born in Pittsburgh, Sichko and his family moved to Orange, Texas, when he was 4. He majored in vocal performance and opera at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. “Even though I knew I could be a singer, and a successful one, I always felt called toward the priesthood,” he said. Sichko was ordained as a priest in Lexington in 1998.
“Lexington offered everything I needed,” he said, ”the country, the city, the poor, the wealthy, an airport and a ministerial opportunity.”
For six years he served with a college-based ministry and with Lexington Catholic High School and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Then he was pastor at St. Mark Catholic Church, a growing parish in Richmond, from 2004 to 2016. Assignments from the Diocese of Lexington are typically six years, with a one-year renewal option for up to six more years.
At St. Mark he developed “An Evening Among Friends,” a series of fundraisers that brought in celebrities to benefit the church and local charities. Jay Leno, Martin Short, Dolly Parton and Harry Connick Jr. were among the entertainers he invited to perform.
This past spring, Father Jim met with Pope Francis in Vatican City, where he presented the pontiff with a bottle of 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.
“The whole concept was the give and the receive,” he said. “You give and you receive. That is something I try to do all the time.”
When his tenure was up at the Richmond church two years ago, Father Jim sat down with Bishop John Stowe. The bishop asked if Sichko would like to travel throughout the United States and be not only a missionary but also a full-time evangelist. “I jumped on that,” Sichko said.
As a motivational speaker, Sichko currently maintains a full slate of speaking engagements throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, as well as other states. Along with his 2013 book, “Among Friends: Stories from the Journey,” guess what else he packs for for back-of-the-room sales? Yes, the spaghetti sauce goes on tour with Father Jim.