Fish sperm sausages, and eyeball icecream: the Josh Niland story

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From using fish eyes in icecream, and not wasting the liver, to creating recipes with fish sperm, chef Josh Niland on his mission to revolutionise how we cook and eat fish. (R)

Chef Josh Niland is devoted to changing ideas about how we cook and eat fish in the western world.

He believes that rather than eating just the fillet, we should aim to eat the whole fish, as we do nose-to-tail with animals. At his restaurants he cooks with fish eyeballs, fish livers, fish heads, and milt (fish sperm).

A big part of Josh's philosophy is about making fishing more sustainable. He says fishers risk their lives every, so we're duty bound to use as much of the catch as we can.

Josh's approach is winning him acclaim around the world. At 30, he won an award which is considered the Oscars of food writing, the James Beard Award, for his first book, The Whole Fish Cookbook.

His passion has its roots in his childhood and his own origin story. At 8 years old, Josh fell terribly ill, and during a long convalescence, realised exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.

Today, Josh has several restaurants of his own.

This conversation discusses family of origin, family, ancestry, parenting, origin stories, personal stories, reflection, memoir, life story, exploration and family dynamics