Fin to fin
Sydney chef Josh Niland has taken seafood into uncharted waters – from dry-aged fillets to fish bacon and fish-eye chips. His new book aims to help us buy, store and cook kaimoana better and use the whole fish, scale to tail.
Sydney chef Josh Niland has taken seafood into uncharted waters – from dry-aged fillets to fish bacon and fish-eye chips. His new book aims to educate us to buy, store and cook kaimoana better and to use the whole fish, scale to tail.
When he was barely a teenager, recovering from childhood cancer, Josh Niland started cooking dinner for his parents and sister. Nothing fancy, he says, but he loved how “a couple of hours of peeling and chopping and looking after something on the stove translated into everybody having a great time … It wasn’t like I was going, ‘I want to be a chef.’”
By the age of 15, he’d convinced his parents to let him leave school for an apprenticeship, and another 15 years on, what chef Niland is doing with fish is up there with what Spain’s Ferran Adrià did for foam at El Bulli in the 1990s. At Saint Peter, his restaurant in Sydney’s Paddington, Niland serves up fish-eye chips, dry-aged Murray cod, sea urchin crumpets and tuna steaks frenched to look like a crown roast. A few doors up at his Fish Butchery store, there’s fresh fish and fish charcuterie for sale, alongside such takeaways as garfish sandwiches and charcoal-grilled tuna burgers with swordfish bacon.
His fish fetish is about using every last morsel, down to the eyes and innards. He has written a book on the subject, The Whole Fish Cookbook, and says the “entire way of thinking about how we process fish needs to be overhauled, with far more consideration given to the elements of a fish that would traditionally be considered ‘waste’”. He points out that sausages, terrine and bread and butter pudding all came from a desire to use offcuts of one sort or another.
“To be able to work with the whole fish and put dishes together that feature both offal and fillet on the plate is thrilling for me, as less gets thrown away. But it’s also exciting for customers as they are able to see the luxury that lies within these ingredients.”
After the book came out in September, Niland took his fish knives to the UK and the US, being feted by the likes of Jamie Oliver, offal king Fergus Henderson and New York “philosopher chef” Dan Barber and demonstrating fish butchery at Fortnum & Mason. Back home, he’s “hugely respected in our industry”, says Australian chef and author Christine Manfield. “He’s one of the most exciting talents and very much a chef for our times.”
FEAR OF FISH
Fish is a low-fat, high-quality protein, filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins and nutrients that can lower blood pressure and help reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke. And the fishing industry is gradually improving its woeful record of harvesting sustainably. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week as part of a healthy diet. But many consumers remain shy of fish – not just because of the comparatively high price of the “fresh” fillets sold in supermarkets and fish shops. Most consumers lack knowledge of fish or an understanding of fish cookery, says Niland, and his book sets out to address the “variables” – such as storage and preparation – that put most people off.
“Buying and cooking only fish fillets is not only creatively limiting but also neglects the majority of the fish.” He says that’s a shame from both an ethical and sustainability point of view. “Using the whole fish shows a great amount of respect for what is a globally depleting commodity.”
Niland acknowledges not everyone has the time, equipment or skills to scale, gut and fillet fish and cook it well. But bad experiences may have less to do with the quality of the fish and more to do with storage, preparation and the cooking method or temperature. His book gives home cooks and experienced chefs pointers on becoming confident with more species and parts of fish, and includes step-by-step instructions on preparation and filleting to make the most of “all the opportunities a fish presents”. Gutting, for instance, is only necessary if you are going to store the fish or if you want to use the offal – which he recommends.
“When you get a piece of fish that’s been correctly handled, it blows your mind because it’s so simple. It’s Spanish mackerel sitting next to some mushrooms, and as a restaurant customer, when it arrives you might say, ‘I can do that, this isn’t that flash!’ And then they eat it, and it’s like, ‘How does this taste so good? How is the skin so crispy?”
Niland, aged 31, met wife Julie, now 29, at a cooking competition when they were both apprentices, and says her input has been instrumental in Saint Peter’s success. “Julie was the one who looked at the layout and said we could get 34 seats in here when
“To put dishes together that feature both offal and fillet on the plate is thrilling for me, as less gets thrown away.”
the architect had said, no, we could only get 22 – that’s obviously a big business boost.”
After they married, their extended European honeymoon included working at Heston Blumenthal’s UK restaurant The Fat Duck, renowned for innovative British cuisine.
CHILDHOOD CANCER
But Niland’s love affair with cooking had begun when he was much younger. “I was eight when I got sick. I had my right kidney taken out for a Wilms’ tumour; chemo followed, and radiotherapy and all that stuff. I found myself at home a bit more, so I would watch daytime TV.” Along with watching Days of Our Lives, he became hooked on food shows. Soon, he was adding items on to the family shopping list and cooking dinners.
By the time he had recovered from his