Meet Josh Niland, the Australian chef who started a fish revolution

11.08.2023 - 09:17 / nationalgeographic.com

It’s not often fear results in good decisions. But for Josh Niland, fear of his fledgling business failing caused him to take a good look at how to make the most of what he had. And when he opened Saint Peter restaurant in Paddington, Sydney, what he had was fish. Seven years later, he’s known as the king of gill-to-fin cooking.

Using the whole fish isn’t just more sustainable, it just made business sense to Niland. “When starting Saint Peter, I think [the approach] was more out of fear than anything, of ordering something that’s so expensive,” he says. “When your first fish invoice comes in, and it’s A$4,500 [£2,420], and A$2,500 [£1,344] of that is deemed waste, then it’s kind of an opportunity, right?”

Niland took this opportunity to use the whole fish and carved out his own niche in Sydney’s food scene. Putting the low-waste idea into action was difficult with a team of just three in the kitchen, but he wanted the “full return” from the fish. “From a Western point of view, it’s always been deemed as acceptable that we just consume the fillet, because… with the larger quantity of a fish there’s too much textural confrontation. And it’s all a bit too visceral and gnarly for us to get our heads around,” he says.

Usually, two-thirds of the fish Australians eat is thrown away. And, despite being a country surrounded by water, the nation imports about 70% of the fish it consumes, which doesn’t come cheap. Niland wants to tackle this by encouraging people to buy good-quality fish, and then make the most of it.

He not only uses the whole fish, but treats it like meat, “because then all of a sudden you’ve got another 15 recipes under your belt, and you’re making the sundries of a fish as desirable as the primary cuts”. Niland uses around 90% of each fish, having developed recipes for almost every part, including the liver, eyes and scales. He makes fish sausages, wellingtons, schnitzels and charcuterie, ranging from marlin ’nduja to flathead mortadella.

Growing up in Maitland, a few hours north of Sydney, Niland developed an interest in food while recovering from childhood cancer. As a teenager he worked in cafes and apprenticed at a local restaurant, before landing a series of chef jobs, including at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck development kitchen and at Stephen Hodges’ now-closed Sydney restaurant, Fish Face. At the latter, Niland forgot to put plastic wrap over the fish one night, and the cool-room fan dried it out. Hodges wasn’t impressed by the mistake, but Niland decided to use the fish anyway.

“It was probably the best fish I’ve cooked, just because of how dry the skin was. When I really started thinking about it, it makes no sense to put a wet fish in a hot frying pan full of hot oil,” he says.