Meet Josh Niland, the Australian chef who started a fish revolution - National Geographic
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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. Later, after launching Saint Peter with his wife Julie in 2016, Niland developed his own method of dry-ageing fish. Because laying it flat means it will perspire and soften on one side, Niland hangs his fish whole and unwashed on hooks in the cool room, so it slowly loses moisture over a number of days. This requires a good understanding of food safety and how long to leave fish to age.
"At many top restaurants in the world that serve fish, best practice is, 'let's buy another fish because yesterday's isn't as good as today's is'. And that's where a lot of fish is going in the bin," Niland says. "But if I know that a whiting is amazing for days one through to seven, then I've got ample opportunity to make sure 95% of that fish goes on the plate in an excellent condition. And the only way we can do that is through dry handling," he says.
The results, Niland adds, speak for themselves. "It's funny that when we serve a three-week old piece of tuna to a guest they say, 'Wow, that's the freshest piece of fish I've ever had.' Yes, at three weeks old. Deliciousness is more important than freshness."
There are plans to move Saint Peter to a new location close to its current site later this year. Its present iteration seats 18 guests, who dine in a line, watching the chefs in the open kitchen. Sustainably sourced Australian fish and seafood is served as part of a regularly changing, seven-course tasting menu that might include line-caught bonito and cured Murray cod fat with sweet and sour radicchio, barbecue grapes and macadamia.
Niland runs Saint Peter with his wife, Julie, the group's CEO. Since opening Saint Peter, they've added two Fish Butchery fish shops, a la carte restaurant Peterman and takeaway Charcoal Fish to their roster of piscine businesses — all located in Sydney.
While Niland has made his mark locally with Saint Peter, he gained global attention when he published his first book, The Whole Fish Cookbook, in 2019. At a quick glance, it reads like a manual, with itemised fish parts and step-by-step instructions on butchery, storage and curing. But then there are recipes, from mackerel blood black pudding to fish curry, often made with little-used native Australian ingredients. It won two James Beard Awards and Niland has since published a second book.
Niland isn't aiming to build a fish empire, he says, but his growing clutch of businesses allow each part of the fish to be used in the right context. "We can't bottleneck every part of the fish through a fine-dining restaurant," he says. "You can't put a lasagne or a kebab on Saint Peter's menu because we're trying to tell a different story there. And you can't give kids at Charcoal Fish an ice cream made from fish eyes."
At Peterman you'll find a steakhouse-inspired 'chateaubriand' of centre-cut yellowfin tuna, while Charcoal Fish minces leftover yellowfin parts to make a cheeseburger. "We've got a system now — a circular one where fish enters and then the last things to leave are the gills and the gallbladder," Niland says. "[It] works really well, but it requires constant maintenance."
Niland's aim is to help change the way people think about fish. "I hope that the practices that we're implementing are encouraging people to try to do their bit in terms of taking fish out of the bin, and applying a [broader] spectrum of methods to it."
Signature dishes
Salt & vinegar King George whiting
Served at Saint Peter, this dish (above) features small slices of whiting that have been salted and pickled in champagne vinegar. The fish is then seasoned with brine from gordal olives, sardine garum and extra virgin olive oil, with warm sourdough bread and yoghurt-cultured butter served on the side.
Double yellowfin tuna cheeseburger
Niland describes this burger as "one of those dishes that brings in sustainability, dry aging, seeing fish as meat and the use of fish offal, all into one tangible handful". Served at takeaway operation Charcoal Fish, it's made from the 'sundries' of tuna like the head and organs, ground up, seasoned and pressed into a patty. This is then grilled and served with swordfish bacon, barbecue sauce, cheese and pickles, all in a soft burger bun.
Southern calamari & yellowfin tuna 'nduja
At Saint Peter, calamari is grilled over charcoal, thinly sliced and placed on top of 'nduja made from yellowfin tuna. The idea is that the customers mix the 'nduja into the long, thin calamari 'noodles', "so it's like eating a pasta", says Niland.
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