Niland’s career started early (at the age of 17) in some of the most notable Sydney kitchens. But he was hooked by fish butchery when he worked at Steve Hodge’s award-winning Sydney fish restaurant Fish Face. After 18 months, he spent some time at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck Development Kitchen researching and experimenting before going back to Sidney to open Saint Peter, focused on fish. “By that time, I started weighing what the true value of that waste would be in restaurant terms, initially it was a financial and creative decision as we’re a small business”, he says.