Pass the Gourmet Salt

	Salt of the Earth

"Where would we be without salt?"
-- James Beard (1903-1985)

If you salted your fries at lunch yesterday, that might mean they've taken on any number of flavors or colors. Gone are the days when salt was simply salt.

Now gourmet chefs in homes and restaurants are using many varieties of sea salts to enhance the flavors and finish of their food -- including pink Hawaiian, Portuguese, French, gray, smoked, ginger and truffle salt.

Sit down at your favorite restaurant and you might find not only that your entree contains an exotic salt but also that the table shaker is full of, say, orange Hawaiian sea salt, as is the case at Abacus, a five-star, award-winning restaurant in Dallas. And chef David Burke, who owns several fine restaurants, says he is so devoted to pink Himalayan rock salt for flavoring that he is actually creating an entire wall made out of it in his new restaurant in Las Vegas hotel The Venetian.

"We have seen tremendous growth in our business over the last few years," says Rob Seideman, owner of Salt Traders, which sells varieties from around the world.

He says customers' most-popular picks are the Danish viking-smoked sea salt and the Cyprus Black Sea salt flakes, which he uses at home to add a punch of flavor to simple dishes such as eggs, baked potatoes and chowders.

"I've definitely noticed an explosion of salts in the kitchen," says Iron Chef America chef Cat Cora, now executive chef at Bon Appetit magazine. "Once known as an everyday pantry staple, you'll now find salt in multiple varieties and even colors in the grocery store."

Flavor Savors

Such a wide array of salt was actually the norm up until the 20th century, when Morton's created an evaporator to make salt white, fine and uniform. But as Mark Kurlansky points out in his book Salt: A World History, we are now a nation that craves unique and more-pungent flavors in food.

In fact, even mainstream Morton's now sells high-end sea salt from the Mediterranean, as well as flavors such as hot salt and garlic salt.