Salts & seasonings
A selection of salts
Kala namak, blue, pink, smoked, fleur de sel — each one signs a dish with its flavour.
Ancestral memory
Salt was once currency, wages and treasure — roads and fortunes were built for it, and the very word 'salary' still carries its memory. Crystallised from the evaporation of ancient seas, it holds the minerality of the ocean within. The salt-workers of Guérande still harvest fleur de sel by hand, at the surface of the marshes, just as a thousand years ago. Each terroir has its salt and its gesture.
What science observes
An unrefined salt keeps its trace elements and its character, where industrial table salt comes down to pure sodium chloride with added anti-caking agents. A whole crystal brings sodium, but also magnesium, potassium and trace minerals — electrolyte balance rather than sodium alone. It is quality, and right measure, that make all the difference.
In the kitchen
Rather than a single salt, we like to keep a small collection: kala namak, the sulphurous Indian black salt reminiscent of egg that signs plant-based dishes; Persian blue salt, rare and mineral; Himalayan pink salt for everyday use; smoked salt for depth; fleur de sel for the crunchy final touch; and sometimes, simply, sea water. We salt at the end of cooking, and keep the fleur de sel for the moment just before serving, to preserve its crunch.
Resonance
True salt is not sodium chloride — it is a living crystal, the mineral memory of the sea. A well-judged pinch awakens an entire dish: its vibration is that of the spark, the detail that makes the whole resonate. One chooses one's salt as one chooses a word.