In many of my images I aim to create a compositional waltz between the subjects and their own shadows.

Over the years, composition around food has made photographer Suzanne Saroff’s reputation. Arranging items, playing with fish, fruits and flowers, New York-based artist alters our perception of everyday objects.

In this series of still-life photographs, the photographer is looking for experimental explorations. Oranges, lobsters, mangos, watermelons, avocados or papayas slowly become abstract, strange and beautiful. Through light, colors and evolving shapes, food and flowers are first stretched then multiplied.

Using glasses and cylinders of all shapes and sizes filled with different amounts of water, Suzanne Saroff distords the shape of the original object, thus changing the perspectives and the way viewers interact with well-known objects.

Follow Suzanne Saroff’s work on her website.

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Preparing and cooking fish everyday is a privilege and something I don’t take for granted. We all need to make good decisions when purchasing, storing and cooking our fish.

In September 2016, Chef Josh Niland and his wife Julie opened Saint Peter, a small fish eatery in Paddington, Sydney, where meals are driven by his childhood connection to the wonders of cooking. As a 8-year-old kid, Josh suffered from a serious illness that made him regularly missed school. Entertainment and excitement were often found in cooking shows and recipe books. Today, Saint Peter is an early dream come true, realized through creativity, dedication and passion. We had a chat with chef Josh Niland to learn more about his inspirations, his sustainable approach and the importance of offering seafood sourced from Australian waters.

What did come first : your passion for cooking or your fascination for seafood? 

A passion for cooking definitely came before my infatuation with fish. What fascinated me about fish though, from quite early on, was how difficult it is to wok with & the level of care that is involved from sourcing/ storing/ butchering & cooking. It was a challenge and that intrigued me.

Over the years, you’ve been working for chefs like Steve Hodges at Fish Face. Who ignited your passion for seafood?

Stephen was a unique individual amongst many that really got me excited about Australian seafood. He was so deeply passionate about his work that, after the time we worked together, I realized I had picked up a truly unique and original skill set that is now the real platform I stand on as a chef.

A couple of years ago, you opened Saint Peter, a seafood restaurant in Sydney’s Paddington, with your wife Julie, one of Sydney’s most promising young pastry chefs. Tell us a bit about your new adventure and your restaurant’s mission.

Julie and I opened Saint Peter, an Australian Fish Eatery, with a desire to reimagine fish preparations, cooking techniques and methods of storage with the information and technology now available in 2018. The restaurant represents 10 years of Julie & I being together. Every meal, every experience we have ever had, has been rolled up and then articulated into what we love most about a restaurant. Our sustainable approach sees the majority of our fish line caught by unique fishermen all around Australia. Our kitchen utilises the whole fish. We now have a recipe for every part of the fish (except the gall bladder). All our seafood is sourced from Australian waters. We are really proud of Saint Peter and what we have accomplished so far.

Tell us more about the products you use and the fish you offer… Why is it important to have a sustainable approach on a daily level as a restaurant? 

Sustainability is a broad word with multiple meanings. The sourcing of sustainable fish species is so critical at Saint Peter as there are so many fish being too heavily fished for their popularity or convenience in the market place. When we purchase fish from either the market or direct from fishermen, we never choose what exact fish we take. I ask for the best and most sustainable which are ideally line caught species, and in turn usually means we receive the very best. When you work with your suppliers like this then you will always get great diversity in species but also good prices as you are taking what was caught today or yesterday. The other part to the word sustainable comes in the form of minimising food waste. Fish is a very expensive commodity, and to run a 34 seat restaurant efficiently and adhere to strict food costs, there must be a plan for the whole fish not just the glamorous 40%!

We appreciate this philosophy of sustainability. How do you make sure no part of the fish goes to waste?

It has taken trial and error to make the organs of a fish desirable and delicious to a western palate. Ten years ago, when I cooked myself a fish liver on toast with a little parsley, I thought it was brilliant and wondered why isn’t this on everyone’s menu. That dish still remains a favorite among with the fish eye chips, utilising the roe in a raw or cured state, smoked heart, cured spleen, fish stomach sausages, caramelised fish heads, glazed fish throat, salt & vinegar scales, fish blood pudding, fish fat salted caramels, etc. It’s all about thinking about the many recipes and methods that can be applied to an animal and applying them to a fish. Basically, if it doesn’t taste delicious, it does not make the menu.  

You technique of dry-ageing fish is very interesting. Tell us a bit more about the concept.

Dry ageing of fish is something that I did out of necessity at Saint Peter. Prior to opening, I knew I wanted to buy the best fish I could and knew that the fish would need to be stored in the correct environment. Our fish fridge sits between 0 and 1 degree at the restaurant. It’s not as if this cabinet is magical and any fish that goes in will come out 2 weeks later with an incredible flavor profile. So much of the ageing process of fish depends on the raw product on day one and how you handle the fish. If all those variables are carefully looked after and the conditions are consistent throughout that maturation stage then, because of moisture loss, you will find nuances in the flavor profile of the fish that may not have been present on days 1 to 5. We intend to explore further ideas around dry ageing when we open our fish butchery this April.

Give us an insight of what your menu looks like. 

Our menu is very simple: it consists of up to 8 oysters at the top of the menu, then 3-4 small dishes using the like of sea urchin, fish offal and other shellfish, then a further 2 or 3 entrees. We then have 5 main courses with one of the dishes always being a fish and chips. Desserts are simple: lemon tart, custard tart & a selection of a few Australian cheeses that I love. The menu changes every service and is totally dependent on what I can get my hands on. It is likely certain dishes gain popularity and then, due to weather or season, they change. This is always the tricky part letting down customers that have come specifically for a certain dish. But over the past 18 months, our customers know how to use Saint Peter and appreciate the everyday broad offering of fish. 

You have a very nice way to show your dishes on Instagram. Would you say social medias are crucial in promoting sustainability?

Most of the staff at Saint Peter and some of my friends disagree with me when I say I put down 50% of the success of Saint Peter to Instagram. In the beginning, I just wanted people to see what I had the privilege of seeing everyday, and it caught on fast. I hope my photos inspire chefs, home cooks and anyone really to value and appreciate excellent fish and be proud of what we have available to us in Australia.

How do you envision the future of food, fish and seafood?

I believe there will definitely be a broader understanding of fish and how to utilise the whole fish in a commercial setting. I do hope the curriculum in culinary colleges are adjusted to break the 60/40 logic of loss & yield for a round fish and start explaining to young chefs that the possibilities are endless. I do though believe there will be challenging times ahead with declining stocks in some species around the world. One can only hope that the farmed fish industries and unique individuals line catching and other innovative methods continue to excel and provide Australians and the world with beautiful fish. Preparing and cooking fish everyday is a privilege and something I don’t take for granted. We all need to make good decisions when purchasing, storing and cooking our fish. Hopefully, Saint Peter can aid in some way towards this future. In the long term, I hope to make a difference in a culinary sense to the way we work with fish from fishermen to table.

Discover more of Saint Peter Restaurant on their website.

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The second chapter of our culinary series is an ode to the extraordinary world surrounding the Andalusian chef Angel Léon’s avant-garde cuisine. Better known as « El Chef Del Mar », the Michelin starred chef’s love of the sea and his innovative techniques has seen him become one of the best chefs in Spain. Considered today as a pioneer in combining inventive culinary creations, surprising marine flavors with products exclusively from the sea, Angel Léon has been able to re-ignite the debate on sustainable fishing. Famous for his exclusive seafood dishes, including plankton, the renowned innovator welcomed us to Aponiente, his restaurant near Cadiz, for a gastronomic immersion.

How would you describe your relationship to the sea?

The sea is a part of me. My dad taught me to love the sea. He was a great fisherman who’s always taken me out to navigate. We sailed the straits of Gibraltar, the coasts of Mauritania, the Norwegian fjords and discovered the deep Atlantic Ocean. I first fell in love with the sea, then fell in love with cooking. So I tried to find a way to combine these two universes. I created a micro-world in which I learned how to respect the sea and, above all, how to talk to it.

Would you say you’re still learning from the sea today?

The sea is the great unknown for human beings. It always teaches us. I still have so many things to learn from it. I believe there’s everything to be made and everything to discover from the sea. It is what inspires me the most; the fact that we don’t know anything about the sea. We are currently generating a new language to talk about it. It’s funny because people often consider me as an expert, however to the sea, I’m nothing but a novice.

In which ways does the sea affect your creativity in your cuisine?

I’m surrounded by a team of people who look at the sea differently than the rest of society do. With my crew, we want to be a mirror of the sea and tell our public everything you cannot hear or see about it. We are in a world where we don’t listen to ourselves. So it seems complicated to listen to the sea. However, we have to listen to it. Reinventing the sea is our big obsession. For example, we created fish sausages but they’re simply a way of showing fish in a different form so that people digest my innovative concepts more easily, without complaining. This way, I don’t have to explain what I do all day long (laughs). The sea is a continuous inspiration. I constantly work on opening minds and getting out of the traditional ways without losing the tastes. I always look ahead and go forward. We always try to forge ahead with concepts and try to teach people about the sea.

You often talk about your kitchen as your “crew”. Can you tell us more about it?

My crew is fundamental. Without this team of people, we wouldn’t be where we are. We are almost 50 people working to feed 35 everyday. There’s a serious compromise from everyone because they are in love with what I do. We invest a lot and believe in this project every single day. The reason why these people are here is clearly not for an economical or a geographical reason. We are not in NYC or in London. There’s no business here but there’s a real compromise, a lot of work and passion. Passion is the fuel that moves the world. My crew make efforts everyday to find a proper language to talk about the sea.

Tell us about Aponiente restaurant and your distinctive vision.

The work of Aponiente is understood now. But when I started, nobody understood it. Imagine 11 years ago, you go to a restaurant and you don’t see any known fish but, instead, you find the antithesis. All that fish that is normally thrown away, the large variety of marine species that are discarded, not usually sold in the supermarket and considered of no commercial value, the biomass, we would transform and cook it. That was the beginning of Aponiente. In the first 3 years, clients would come in and walk away because they didn’t understand our dishes and what we were trying to claim. At that time, we were swimming upstream, people didn’t understand our vision. The local public wasn’t yet ready for our innovative techniques, based on 100% of products from the sea. Those were very hard years. It was at the same time very emotional and exhausting, because we felt we were going against the current.  

Why did people’s reaction change after that?

Thanks to time. Or maybe there’s a sensitivity towards our work today. After those tough beginnings, we started to progress. Progress was about taking all the things on earth, habits from human beings and submerging them underwater. The sea is not selective, you have to accept it how it is. That’s a strict condition we want to respect. To me, the most beautiful thing is that everything we use in our kitchen is collected from the sea. I’ve always wanted to pick up the maximum from the sea. There’s absolutely nothing that isn’t coming from the sea. I’m convinced that using fish discards and diversifying the species we fish contribute towards a more sustainable sea life.

According to you, what is the main value of Aponiente? 

Aponiente tends to reinvent the concept around the sea. Today, we use fish, seafood and seaweeds for their flavor and textures. We make grilled fish, smoked fish, salted fish and fish sausages. We found a new form of telling a story around the sea. That is definitely the great value of Aponiente. Our obsession with the sea allowed us to reinvent the way we see it. It led us to a new style of cuisine, a radical and risky culinary language based on ingredients that no one usually considers food. Our passion brought us to work on fish-based sausages, made of discarded fish, and allowed us to consider the nutritional properties of plankton, used as an ingredient. 

Could you tell us more about plankton in your kitchen?

Being able to turn plankton into a cooking ingredient has been one of my greatest achievements. I’m always looking for the ocean’s flavors and plankton is the central component of marine ecosystems. It was a challenge for me to recreate its flavors. I even made myself sick experimenting with plankton. But today I feel more than happy to be able to serve plankton at dinner. Anyone who has tasted plankton in this house has got emotional. No matter what culture or religion, when you smell plankton, when you take it in your hands, you feel this connection with the ocean. I like to visit each table personally, and to see the first impressions of the clients when they first taste the plankton. 

Describe the place where your restaurant is located today. What makes this ecosystem so unique?

From my old restaurant, I couldn’t see or smell the sea. That’s why the new Aponiente restaurant is the dream of my life. It’s the beginning of a journey. I always knew that I would end up working in a place like this, surrounded by nature. The restaurant is situated in a two centuries-old mill used to work with tides. We’ve restored it. We’re lucky to be surrounded by water, the marshlands of Cadiz, an incredibly rich habitat full of birds and sea life. It inspires me everyday. You should see people’s faces when they come here… This place is magical.

How did the Michelin stars affect you?

I always say that the first Michelin star was sent by God. It saved the restaurant. We had a 180m²- restaurant. And in a 180m²-space, we received two Michelin stars. We were the smallest restaurant with 2 stars. Maybe our message was too massive, so serious in every level that it made that place big. A few years ago, we didn’t know what would happen. We didn’t know if people would understand us or value our work. That’s why the second star was the confirmation that people liked what we were doing, our cuisine, our instinct and manners. That was when things started to change. Today, beyond our small reality, people come from abroad to discover our cuisine. In our micro world, it’s very enriching to share experiences. People from around the world come to our restaurant and their reaction is « Wow ». That «Wow » is stronger than words. It’s emotional and gives us strength to keep fighting.

All Photos by Sarah Arnould/Panthalassa

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Our life is determined by the tides and the sea.

Panthalassa is delighted to present its very first short film directed by Douglas Guillot tending to show the close relationship between ocean and the culinary world.

Joel Dupuch is not only one of the most famous oyster farmers of our times but also a renowned actor playing alongside talented artists like actress Marion Cotillard. In 2006, he took his first steps into the world of cinema thanks to the movie entitled “Tell No One” produced by Luc Besson. In 2010, Joel Dupuch made a noticeable and touching appearance in the French comedy-drama “Little White Lies”, directed by Guillaume Canet.

Today, after performances in successful movies and television series and succumbing to the temptation of becoming an actor loved by the audience, he divides his life between his restaurant in Bordeaux and his oyster farm in Lège-Cap Ferret.

We spent some days in his small village “Les Jacquets” in the Arcachon Bay, talking about farmed oysters as the most sustainable fishery. Oysters don’t need chemicals and act as filter feeders, filtering the plankton and organic matter, and improving water quality. With a low impact on the environment, oysters seem to be an incredible ocean-friendly seafood option. Described as »Superfood of the sea«, oysters are nutritious, full of multivitamins and minerals.

Through the portrait of Joel Dupuch, an Epicurean strongly attached to the products’ value, we are proud to officially launch our series of episodes about the alliance between the ocean and the comestible art.

In our second short film (in the making), we will meet Andoni Luiz Aduriz, Chef at the Michellin-starred Mugaritz restaurant in San Sebastian, considered as one of the top 10 restaurants in the world.  And we will explore the divine triangle between the ocean, gastronomy and creativity.

Photography Series by Sarah Arnould. Leica, Analogue.

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