The New Restaurant Status Symbol: Dry-Aged Fish

When chef Josh Niland first opened Saint Peter, his nose-to-tail seafood restaurant in Paddington, Australia, he placed the fish aging cabinet behind the front window. “It was before anyone had ever really seen fish on hooks,” he says. “People would literally stop in the street and ask, ‘What is that?’ And then they’d have to come in.”

Eight years later and three cookbooks under his belt (The Whole Fish Cookbook, Take One Fish, and Fish Butchery), Niland has become known for popularizing the dry-aging of fish, a technique that many sushi chefs have been quietly doing for centuries. To those unfamiliar, the term, “dry-aged fish” might seem inherently contradictory — the fresher the fish, the better, right? But as Niland and countless other chefs around the world have proven, the process of scaling a fish, thoroughly cleaning out its insides, and keeping it in a dry, cool environment can improve both its flavor and texture. Raw, the flesh might become more tender and fresh-tasting. Cooked, the skin might puff up and crispen. However, the exact results depend on the type of fish used and the length of time it gets aged — a formula that Niland has been experimenting with for the past decade.

According to him, some Australian fish, like King George Whiting and Flathead, shouldn’t be aged for more than five days or else the aging will begin to detract from its flavor. And then there are meatier fishes like swordfish, which, after aging for over two weeks, can taste similar to a pork chop. If there’s one thing you can expect from a dry-aged fish, it’s that it should taste and smell less “fishy.” “When we get people to enjoy it the moment that we feel it’s best, they’ll usually say it’s the freshest piece of fish they’ve ever had,” Niland says. 

Another benefit of dry-aging is that it allows chefs to extend the shelf life of their fish. Rather than lasting several days, a fish can last weeks, giving chefs like Niland more time to use every last bit of the animal (he’ll even use the offal to make sausages, bacon, and pies). “So instead of a 50% yield, we try to get as close to 95% as we can.”

While the fish at Saint Peters are now hung in a custom-built refrigerated room, most chefs in the United States who dabble with fish aging use a smaller, temperature controlled cabinet, like the DRY AGER. And just like steakhouses display their premium cuts of beef, more and more seafood restaurants across the country are placing their fish aging devices in the dining room for guests to admire. 

Take a step into Theodora in Brooklyn, New York, and to your immediate right, you’ll find a DRY AGER full of fish suspended upside down and dramatically lit as if they’re in the spotlight. “It highlights what we do and the beautiful fish we get,” says Theodora’s chef-owner Tomer Blechman.

A fish-aging cabinet is also in the dining room at Automatic Seafood in Birmingham, Alabama, a decision that, according to chef Adam Evans, was due to space limitations. Nevertheless, Evans has observed that any guest who notices the locker immediately becomes interested in it. “There’ll be people over there taking pictures of it,” he says. “It is a trendy thing.”

For diners around the country who may be intimidated by dry-aged fish (let alone any seafood), having an aging cabinet in the dining room can help demystify the process.“If the fish in there is looking good, guests can connect value to that display and not feel weirded out,” says 2020 F&W Best New Chef Nick Bognar, who dry-ages fish at his sushi bar, Sado in St. Louis, Missouri.

Niland adds, “What better way of bringing transparency and luxury to a menu product than by showing it off in a raw way in our dining room? You don’t have to go back very far in history to [recall when] France would have trolleys wheeled over to your table with a selection of cheeses from the region that they were in, or [when a chef] brings a beautiful turbot to your table before they cook it. There have always been these tableside theatrics which I think is a wonderful thing because it brings visibility to the quality of the product that the kitchen is working with.”

Since 2023 F&W Best New Chef Nando Chang opened his Miami omakase bar, Itamae AO, he’s had countless passersby stop to appreciate their fish aging cabinet through the window.  “It’s part of the show,” he says. “It’s almost like when a sushi chef opens a box of saku loins before you get your nigiri so you can look at your product before you consume it. [Fish aging lockers] are the same — it’s just hanging in a cooler.”