The Whole Fish Cookbook: New Ways to Cook, Eat and Think

by Josh Niland

We all want to eat more fish, but who wants to bother spending the time, effort and money cooking that same old salmon fillet on repeat when you could be trying something new and utterly delicious?

In The Whole Fish Cookbook , Sydney’s groundbreaking seafood chef Josh Niland reveals a completely new way to think about all aspects of fish cookery. From sourcing and butchering to dry ageing and curing, it challenges everything we thought we knew about the subject and invites readers to see fish for what it really is – an amazing, complex source of protein that can, and should, be treated with exactly the same nose-to-tail reverence as meat.

Featuring more than 60 recipes for dozens of fish species ranging from Cod Liver Pate on Toast, Fish Cassoulet and Roast Fish Bone Marrow to – essentially – the Perfect Fish and Chips, The Whole Fish Cookbook will soon have readers seeing that there is so much more to a fish than just the fillet and that there are more than just a handful of fish in the sea.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Cuisine, Culinary

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2019

Reviews

[Bria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept and the recipes are wonderful but the directions are vague, assume a level of existing culinary vocabulary and often require re-reading and googling to follow. For example - "To poach fish put a plastic wrap covered saucer inside a pot and place fish on top"... fully submerged in the liquid? Why? Why not just put the fish directly inside the pot? What is the purpose of the saucer? It is not mentioned again. "Cold smoke fish in a steamer by putting wet chips in the bottom of the steamer"...and then steam? for how long? The recipe for Native Fish Curry has eel as one of the ingredients however the instructions don't tell you what to do with the eel, the recipe just says - add all "other ingredients and blend", one assumes this includes the eel but it is unclear if it requires any other prep before it should be blended and added. Overall this lack of detail does not give you confidence to attempt the recipes - which do look amazing. Also many of the recipes are for large numbers such as 8 people and look tricky to scale down. I can't see myself making half a kilo of pickled grapes even if they keep for months. It seems like the recipes have been taken directly from his commercial kitchen and haven't been tested and edited with a home cook in mind. They need clarity and need to be more practical.

[Safaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an enjoyable read and I loved the reeipes on how to work on every part of the fish, from scales to livers to bones and blood. Would love to have had more theory behind the cooking, or some sources for further reading!

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh Niland is a genius.
Nigella Lawson

Equal parts comprehensive technical manual and a giant porthole into creativity, chef Niland's honest and pure approach to all things fish is inspiring.The Whole Fish Cookbook beautifully articulates the entire animal approach while methodically opening the reader's mind to how responsibility and innovation coexist.
Grant Achatz,

Here's one of those rare books that teaches you the basics. An inspiring read, and something to return to again and again - these pages are sure to be worn down quick.
Rene Redzepi

If you love cooking fish, this book will be a revelation. You'll learn about dry-ageing to concentrate flavour and using every part but the bubble from the fish's mouth!
Rick Stein

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Josh has basically taken all the old ways of fish prep and cookery and thrown the bad ones out the window then turned what remains on its head. This book is such an eye opener for me personally and at the same time makes so much sense when Josh explains how he thinks about the world of seafood.
Nathan Outlaw

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved reading this and getting to know Niland's approach to fish. The photography and design was beautiful too.

[Luke Gruber · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures in this book are unreal. I love the concept, essentially the author approaches fish like meat (specialty cuts, dry aging… etc). It’s outrageously creative and makes me want to visit his restaurant! However, it’s not as approachable for your average home cook.

[Shaleah · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating cookbook!
The author treats fish like any land mammal and it opens up new ways to cook, eat and think. I want to try many of these recipes.
Sadly, living far away from the ocean, I don't have access to many of the fish in this book. I love the idea of using the whole fish, but that isn't an option for me.
I can use the techniques and if I get a whole fish someplace I have ideas on how to use every piece.

[Shades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. Planning on rethinking how I acquire fresh fish and how I utilize them.

Clear explication and directions. Intriguing recipes.

[Vladimir Semenov · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent read and mindset.

[Avi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most interesting fish cookbook I've read. If you're curious about cooking fish or enjoy cooking fish, check it out. I think it's something that requires some knowledge about cooking fish to appreciate properly, but I think it will reward rereads and attempts to cook from it. Please check out the negative reviews too though. It's not something that is easy to understand.

[Jim Schuessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of cookbooks, but on what I can guess was a whim, my wife gifted this book, this Christmas. Wow, what an eye-opener to the world of preparing and consuming fish! I've always loved eating fish, and really all seafood all of my life, but this book is inspiring this non-cook to take up a pan (and a fish weight) and give it a shot!

[Nigel Rajaretnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most beautiful book I've ever seen. I like fishing/fish/seafood so it figures.

The way it is bound, photography, wording/typeface...all just beautiful.

I haven't even tried cooking anything in it just yet, but I will start :0

[SE · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounding up. This is a gorgeous, informative book on fish preparation. That said, many recipes appear time consuming and ingredients might not be readily available. Yet Niland writing style is clear and detailed. Every library should have a copy.

[David Brinkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then we see someone who takes a subject matter a little too far. I LOVE when people do this! This is an important book. Intelligent, reasonable, something to respect. I’m a better chef after reading this.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not one recipe in this book grabbed me or looked like a fun make.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful book but not very useful for me. The recipes are too complicated and vague. More something I would see in a fancy restaurant.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great, slightly bigger thinking and I'm yet to figure out how to start cooking it at home. Doesn't help that I'm 4 hours from the ocean.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. If you don’t follow Josh Niland, the pioneer and easily the world’s biggest proponent of “nose to tail” fish eating, on Instagram, you should. We’ve all seen photos and videos of amazing things that butchers and chefs do with other meats, and he brings the same level of care and intensity to creatures of the sea. And this book is a compilation and explication of many of things that to date, we’d only seen in photos and videos.

The recipes are stunning. The one thing is, this is definitely a cookbook written for chefs. That’s not to say that non-chefs won’t find it fascinating, but unless you’re well steeped in a lot of professional kitchen procedures and lingo, there are a lot of things that may leave you wondering “why?” or even “what?” He has a tendency to approach many of the directions in the recipes the way a chef might when talking to his crew, with a “do this, then that…” using terms that a line cook would immediately interpret the how to, but the average home cook might be left puzzled.