Saint Peter, Charcoal Fish, Petermen, Fish Butchery

When Josh Niland was a child, battered hoki and chips on a Sunday night was about as grand as a fish dinner got. That changed as he started cooking, working with legendary chefs including Peter Doyle and Steve Hodges. It changed again when he opened Saint Peter in Paddington in 2016, dry-ageing tuna as if it were wagyu, curing swordfish into bacon and deep-frying mulloway scales to scatter over salt-baked pumpkin.

With wife Julie, Niland opened Fish Butchery in 2018 and Charcoal Fish in 2021. The pattern was set: to treat fish as if it were meat, to develop and refine techniques that could make use of every part (including the eyes) and to bring the whole fish to the people. Everything his kitchens do is designed to add value to the fish itself, whether it be cod fat caramel, kingfish croquettes or flathead mortadella.

In February, Niland launched Petermen bistro in St Leonards, where abalone schnitzel is fashioned into sandwiches and tuna is served as a hulking chateaubriand. More recently, he launched a third book and announced his first overseas restaurant in Singapore promising fish cut to order, including crown roast and rib on the bone. Creative disruption is rarely this delicious.