Josh Niland is the Australian chef behind Saint Peter in Sydney, the seafood restaurant that has made him globally recognised for a single idea: fish should be butchered, dry-aged, cured and used in its entirety, the way a good butcher treats meat. Born in 1988 in East Maitland, New South Wales, Niland left school at 15 to start his apprenticeship, moved to Sydney at 17, and opened Saint Peter with his wife Julie in 2016 at age 27. The restaurant now operates from the Grand National Hotel in Paddington after moving there in August 2024.
Saint Peter was named NSW Restaurant of the Year in the 2025 Gourmet Traveller awards and entered The World’s 50 Best Restaurants extended list at No. 66 in 2024. Niland’s 2019 book The Whole Fish Cookbook won two James Beard Awards, the first time an Australian author had won in the Book of the Year category. His Niland Group now includes Saint Peter, two Fish Butchery shops, Petermen, and Fysh at The Singapore Edition hotel, with Julie Niland serving as group CEO.
TL;DR
- Australian chef born 1988 in East Maitland, New South Wales
- Chef-owner of Saint Peter, now at Grand National Hotel, Paddington, Sydney (moved August 2024)
- 2025 NSW Restaurant of the Year; No. 66 on The World’s 50 Best extended list (2024)
- Author of The Whole Fish Cookbook (2019), winner of two James Beard Awards
- Pioneer of fin-to-gill fish butchery, dry-aging and whole-fish utilisation (about 90%)
Josh Niland key facts
| Born | 1988, East Maitland, New South Wales, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Main restaurant | Saint Peter, Grand National Hotel, Paddington, Sydney (opened 2016, relocated August 2024) |
| Style | Whole-fish butchery; dry-aging and curing of seafood; fin-to-gill utilisation |
| Notable awards | Two James Beard Awards (The Whole Fish Cookbook, 2019); NSW Restaurant of the Year 2025; World’s 50 Best extended list 2024 |
| Training | Luke Mangan’s Glass Brasserie, Peter Doyle’s Est, Stephen Hodges at Fish Face, The Fat Duck (England) |
| Other ventures | Fish Butchery (two locations), Petermen (North Sydney), Fysh (The Singapore Edition) |
Early life and training of Josh Niland
Niland was born in 1988 in East Maitland, a Hunter Valley town in New South Wales, to Marea and Stephen Niland. He grew up playing sport on local teams alongside future chef and television host Andy Allen, and occasionally fishing the Hunter River for flathead. At age eight he was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumour, a form of kidney cancer, after a mass was found under his rib. His right kidney was removed and he underwent 18 months of treatment. The experience, which he has spoken about publicly, shaped his perspective on mortality and kindness.
At 12 he decided to become a chef. Three years later he left school to begin an apprenticeship, and six months in received a cancer-charity scholarship presented at an event catered by Est, the Sydney fine-dining restaurant run by Peter Doyle. Doyle invited him to the restaurant the following day, and Niland made the 160-kilometre train trip to Sydney. He later described the visit as formative, and started making frequent trips on his days off to attend Sydney fine-dining restaurants, taking notes on ingredients and presentation.
At 17 he moved to Sydney and joined Luke Mangan’s Glass Brasserie, then Peter Doyle’s Est where he first developed a meaningful interest in fish. He has said this stemmed from the status fish chefs held in a classical kitchen: “they had the sharpest knives” and a good understanding of restaurant economics. He then worked at Fish Face in Sydney under Stephen Hodges, and spent a period in England at The Fat Duck under Heston Blumenthal. At a TAFE NSW apprentice cooking competition in 2007 he met Julie Edmunds; they later married, and she is now CEO of the Niland Group.
Josh Niland career timeline
- 1988: Born in East Maitland, New South Wales
- 1996: Diagnosed with Wilms’ tumour at age 8; right kidney removed; 18 months of treatment
- Early 2000s: Decides at 12 to become a chef; leaves school at 15 to apprentice
- Mid-2000s: Scholarship leads to first visit to Est in Sydney under Peter Doyle
- 2005: Moves to Sydney at 17; joins Luke Mangan’s Glass Brasserie
- Late 2000s: Works at Est, Fish Face (under Stephen Hodges), and The Fat Duck in England
- 2007: Meets Julie Edmunds at a TAFE NSW apprentice cooking competition
- 2016: Opens Saint Peter on Oxford Street, Paddington, with Julie Niland
- 2018: Opens the original Fish Butchery shop in Paddington
- 2019: Publishes The Whole Fish Cookbook; wins two James Beard Awards, including Book of the Year
- 2020: Publishes Take One Fish
- 2021-2023: Opens Charcoal Fish, Petermen and second Fish Butchery
- 2023: Publishes Fish Butchery; opens Fysh at The Singapore Edition hotel
- 2024: Saint Peter enters The World’s 50 Best Restaurants extended list at No. 66
- August 2024: Saint Peter relocates to the Grand National Hotel, Paddington
- 2025: NSW Restaurant of the Year at the Gourmet Traveller awards; judges S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy
Josh Niland signature style: fin-to-gill fish butchery
The central idea of Niland’s cooking is that fish should be treated the way a good butcher treats meat. That means buying fish whole, breaking them down into their constituent parts (fillets, belly, collar, cheeks, liver, eyes, scales, bones, skin, roe, blood), and then finding the right technique for each part: dry-aging, curing, smoking, rendering, pressure cooking, sausage-making. He calls the approach fin-to-gill or scale-to-tail. Standard practice has been that Australians throw away about two-thirds of every fish they buy; Niland’s kitchens use about 90%.
The approach was born of necessity. Six months after opening Saint Peter in 2016, Niland’s accountant warned him that food costs would force him to let staff go unless something changed. Rather than cut the team, he started using the parts of the fish most kitchens discard. The economic argument and the culinary argument compounded: creative use of underused cuts lowered food cost as a percentage of turnover, and the unusual dishes became the restaurant’s identity.
Fish at Saint Peter is purchased whole from Australian fishermen and processed at the Niland Group’s custom Fish Butchery facility a short walk from the restaurant. Some species are dry-aged in custom cool rooms, which intensifies flavour and allows the skin to achieve maximum crispness. The same cool rooms produce fish for retail sale through the two Fish Butchery shops. The integrated supply chain means every part of every fish finds its appropriate use across Saint Peter, Petermen and the retail counters.
Notable dishes at Saint Peter
Several Saint Peter dishes have become reference points. The fish-eye ice cream, served on a chocolate fish-bone cake at #50BestTalks 2024, is the most famous provocation: the eye is blended into a custard base and, contrary to expectation, does not taste of fish. Fish-eye chips (fried, like pork scratchings) push the same argument. The tuna ‘nduja, built from underused yellowfin parts and served with grilled charcoal calamari sliced into noodle-length strands, turns fish into a pasta-adjacent dish. The dry-aged whole fish, carved tableside like a Sunday roast, is the restaurant’s centrepiece. And the John Dory Gin, developed with Archie Rose distillery, is distilled from an air-dried John Dory carcass using the pechuga mezcal method with native Australian botanicals.
Josh Niland awards and recognition
- 2019: The Whole Fish Cookbook wins two James Beard Awards (including Book of the Year, first Australian win in the category)
- 2020: Publishes Take One Fish
- 2023: Publishes Fish Butchery
- 2024: Saint Peter enters The World’s 50 Best Restaurants extended list at No. 66
- 2025: NSW Restaurant of the Year (Gourmet Traveller)
- 2025: NSW State Winner (Gourmet Traveller National Restaurant Awards)
- 2025: S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy judge
Josh Niland impact on contemporary cooking
Niland’s most concrete contribution is the global rehabilitation of whole-fish cookery. The Whole Fish Cookbook (2019) operated as both manual and manifesto: itemised fish parts, step-by-step instructions on butchery, storage and curing, and recipes that used parts most kitchens discarded. The two James Beard Awards translated that argument into a global audience of professional chefs. Fish Butchery (2023) expanded the framework and formalised it as a trade, not just a cookery style.
The second contribution is the integrated restaurant-retail model. Fish Butchery, with two Sydney locations, sits both as a processing facility for the restaurants and as a retail counter for home cooks. This means customers can buy the same dry-aged fish and fish sundries served in Saint Peter to cook at home. The model has been studied by seafood restaurants in Europe, the United States and Asia, and Niland’s 2023 Singapore expansion with Fysh at The Edition hotel is the first international test of the approach.
Within the current generation of Australian chefs he sits alongside Peter Gilmore, whose Quay closed in February 2026, Ben Shewry at Attica in Melbourne, and Analiese Gregory (Franklin and independent Tasmanian projects). His work extends the Australian produce-driven tradition that Danny Yip‘s modernist peers and Daniel Calvert‘s generation of Australian chefs abroad have pushed in different directions.
Josh Niland FAQ
Where is Saint Peter?
At the Grand National Hotel in Paddington, Sydney. Saint Peter opened in 2016 in a smaller space on Oxford Street, also in Paddington, and relocated to the Grand National in August 2024. The new premises include a private dining room for groups of 7-14 guests.
What is fish butchery?
Niland’s practice of treating fish the way a butcher treats meat: buying whole, breaking down into named cuts, dry-aging, curing, smoking, rendering and using every part. The Niland Group’s two Sydney Fish Butchery shops operate both as processing facilities for the restaurants and as retail counters for home cooks.
How many restaurants does Josh Niland have?
Saint Peter and Petermen in Sydney, two Fish Butchery retail shops in Sydney, and Fysh at The Singapore Edition hotel. Earlier ventures Charcoal Fish (takeaway) has since closed. Julie Niland is CEO of the group.
Has Josh Niland written cookbooks?
Three. The Whole Fish Cookbook (2019) won two James Beard Awards including Book of the Year. Take One Fish (2020) focused on home-cook-friendly recipes. Fish Butchery (2023) formalised his practice into a three-part framework: Catch, Cut and Craft.
Does Josh Niland really cook with fish eyes?
Yes. Niland serves fish eyes as both a crispy snack (fish-eye chips) and blended into fish-eye ice cream. He originally chose to work with eyes precisely because they are texturally challenging for cooks and customers, and because doing so proves that the whole-fish argument extends even to the parts most people would discard.
What is next for Josh Niland
Following the 2025 NSW Restaurant of the Year award and the 2024 move to the Grand National Hotel, Niland’s focus remains on Saint Peter’s new home, the Fish Butchery retail operation, and Fysh in Singapore. He continues to develop the Niland Group with his wife Julie as CEO. His public Instagram (@mrjoshniland) is the best source for current menu updates and new projects.
