Fishtales: Joel Gilby (Three Friends Abalone, Tasmania) - one of Australia’s greatest ingredients

Abalone has spent most of its life suffering from a dreadful image problem.

For years it has been wrapped in ceremony, priced like jewellery and regarded by home cooks with the same confidence they reserve for rewiring the switchboard. Revered, yes. Understood? Hardly.

The truth is rather less theatrical.

In the cold waters off Tasmania, Joel Gilby and the team at Three Friends Abalone have quietly been growing one of Australia’s greatest ingredients. Sweet rather than shouty. Elegant rather than extravagant. And infinitely ea...