I have no salt on my dining table. I have worked in restaurants where there quite intentionally was no salt and pepper on the table. A request by a patron for additional pepper was reasonable and was met with a server armed with peppermill, but more salt on the food was viewed by the kitchen as a corruption of a perfectly good meal. The reason being that the chef, whether it was myself or someone I was working for, felt very strongly about the food leaving the kitchen properly seasoned.
There are certain foods, potatoes being one example, that just don’t taste as good if they salted after cooking as opposed to the salt being cooked into the food. (yes, french fries are the one glaring exception to this rule). For me though, meats, vegetables, almost anything I can think of is enhanced more effectively when the salt is cooked in and not merely added on the surface after the food is done cooking. Yet when I think of those restaurants where we didn’t have the salt on the table, I recall also how many patrons complained as if a fork or knife was missing.
Meats I usually salt after cooking. Vegetables I cook in slightly salted broth, and finish with a little salt and pepper. Frites I salt just before serving, and I don’t prepare potatoes any other way very often. When I do mashed potatoes I put some salt in the cooking water, and when mashing add salt as needed. Fried eggs I salt at the table. I don’t use salt in my pasta cooking water.
In general i don’t use much salt on what I eat. Carollee sometimes adds salt to some things.
While I rarely put salt on my food once it’s on the table, I think it depends on the establishment of which you are dining.
Yes, a chef de cuisine of a fine dining establishment makes every intention to send a plate to the table with no need for additional seasoning. Pepper, on rare occasions, being the exception to this rule. I can understand adding salt/pepper to a soup, or maybe mashed potatoes. In my experience, the addition of such spices should only occur when you are able to amply blend them into the entire dish, like a bowl of soup.
The only place I find myself in true need of any additional spices is at my grandmother’s house. Having cooked with no salt for so long due to my grandfather’s health, she still does the same. The food is quite bland and is always missing the flavor that salt and pepper would add to the cooking process.
I’m moving more and more to salting after cooking.
I have a dozen or so finishing salts. I could salt before the meal “leaves the kitchen” but I’d rather allow my guests to choose which salt excites them. Sometimes a person chooses the truffle salt when I choose the large flake, another might like the black Hawaiian.
Seasoning is part of cooking. If you have to add it after then it should be prepared differently next time. I wince when I see friends grab the salt shaker without trying anything. I do think, much like portions, Americans are used to a lot more sodium in their food than they should be.
Chef’s should learn that pleasing the customer is their #1 job. If salt is requested give it to them without condensation.
What about baked potatoes? I like a little flake salt on a split open baker…
As far as salting pre or post, I like to salt my red meat prior to cooking (as it is warming up to room temp) 9 times out of 10 that’s all the salt I need, my guest, might need more and I’m fine with that…
Chef’s should learn that pleasing the customer is their #1 job. If salt is requested give it to them without > condensation.
Mel,
I would never, nor would I ever work for someone who would require that patrons be pulled cold from the refrigerator and sat at the table allowing water vapor to accumulate on their faces, just so that they could get more salt for their food.
That would be silly.
We didn’t make them feel bad about it either, that would be condescending.
But seriously, it’s more like Whetrock said. Some people have this knee jerk reaction and salt their food before they’ve even tasted it.
The main point I’m trying to make is that the result of adding salt to many foods after cooking is less effective than before or during.
I never even put salt or pepper on my table. I use salt on meats before they’'re cooked and on vegetables while they cook. Salt plays an important role in the cooking process as well as enhancing flavor (when properly done). I may adjust a dish or sauce after it is cooked but that is rare. I could see using truffle salt after the dish is plated, but I tend towards using truffle oil instead.
I agree with the comments that if I have to salt the food in a restaurant, the chef didn’t do a very good job preparing the dish.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I feel the same about pepper and grated cheese. I know it is (or was) trendy to offer fresh black pepper and/or fresh grated parm cheese, but my feeling it if the chef thought some should be added, why wasn’t it done before the dish left the kitchen?
For a food to be “perfectly salted” in the kitchen either a) presumes that all diners have the same sensitivity to the taste of salt, or b) ignores any such differences in sensitivity. If memory serves, so-called supertasters and nontasters have very different perceptions of saltiness. If this is so, then is it ignorance, or is it hubris, for a chef to proclaim that a dish is perfectly salted when it leaves the kitchen?
I think that lack of hospitality or manners on the part of a restaurant up to and including the chef is just bad form.
That being said, in practice we have established what is correctly salted/seasoned in the kitchens that I have worked in and we try to serve the food as such.
At this point in time I don’t know if I agree with not having a salt well on the table with some type of finishing salt, but that’s not really what I was getting at anyway.
But wouldn’t that be true for any spice or any ingredient in the dish? Why is salt so special? I think it’s a cultural habit to have salt on the serving table and it has also become habit for people to use it…cause its there ya know! What if it was butter, paprika or sugar?
I can understand a ‘home’ chef who is having a dinner party having salt available on the table as to allow the attendees to add salt (or pepper) at their own preference.
But I also have to agree with WetRock: those that salt food before they even taste it totally baffle me. However, I have been guilty of that myself but only at my grandmother’s because I know there is absolutely no salt in her potatoes when she makes them.
Salt is special because it is a physiological need (unlike paprika and ketchup and…): its primary importance in our diet makes it more than just another seasoning. It is one of the basic tastes. Food doesn’t taste right if it is over- or undersalted, and the “right amount” differs among diners. Perhaps this is why we customarily place salt on the table… a thoughtful cook can avoid making food too salty for the more sensitive and those who are less sensitive can add a dash after tasting.