Salts of the earth

Look at the salts on chef Gabriel Bremer's tray and you might have trouble believing they have anything in common with the tiny white crystals in the shaker on your table.

At his Cambridge restaurant Salts, Bremer uses dramatic red and black flakes from Hawaii to finish tomato salads. A moist white French fleur de sel is mild enough to flavor caramel ice cream. And the restaurant's steak is served with small dishes of pink flakes from Peru and grey salt from France, allowing customers to try out the different textures and flavors on their own. ``We let people kind of play around with them," Bremer says, explaining this interactive element of the meal. ``It's just a unique, little extra detail that we do."

It may seem like a detail, but many local chefs say the right salt is an indispensable component of cooking. Specialty salts have grown in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to both national and local retailers who are bringing in unusual varieties from Australia, Cyprus, and South Africa. Even Morton, which produces a salt known for its uniformity and free flow, has begun offering a specialty sea salt harvested off the coast of Spain.

An ancient ingredient so common in kitchens that most cooks keep it in a dish beside their work area, sea salt -- with its large crystals and intriguing shapes -- has achieved a new status in restaurants. It has the same cachet that olive oil and microgreens did before they became so well known. Enthusiasts add sea salt to every dish they make, including desserts (see related story).

Salts often gain their colors and characteristics from trace substances, such as clay or ash, that are found in the water where they're harvested or mixed with the salt. Not only do salts add both color and texture to food, some say the trace substances can enhance the flavor of the salt itself, in much the same way that wine enthusiasts say soil and the local environment affect the characteristics of grapes.

``It's very subtle," says Ana Sortun, chef and owner of the Cambridge restaurant Oleana. ``It's not for your average palate."

But Bremer and restaurateur Ken Oringer are giving customers a chance to see for themselves. The kobe beef at Oringer's sashimi bar Uni is served with three salts: an intense Danish smoked variety, fleur de sel from France, which is often referred to as the ``caviar of salt," and a Japanese sea salt flavored with cinnamon, fennel, and star anise. Guests are instructed to dip the meat into each one. ``Salt is probably my favorite ingredient," says Oringer, who counts seven different salts that he regularly uses. ``Food tastes like nothing if you don't have something to accent it."

Oringer believes the salt industry has expanded to meet a growing interest in food, and that each variety has its own purpose -- flaky white Maldon sea salt from England for heirloom tomatoes, a fine Japanese sea salt for raw fish, or a potent flavored salt to enhance bland meats and seafood. ``Years ago, salt was salt was salt," Oringer says.

Mark Kurlansky, a New York-based writer and author of the book ``Salt: A World History," notes that consumers appear to have come full circle: In earlier centuries, people avoided ``dirty" salt with impurities in it, and by the early 20th century, many wanted Morton's clean, uniform product. ``We had about a century of that and people got bored with it," Kurlansky says in a phone interview. ``I think we've become junkies for choices."

Morton began offering its sea salt about a year ago, in response to customer demand, says Linda Kragt, the company's technical services manager. Morton had already noticed an increased interest in kosher salt, which takes its name from the coarse texture being appropriate for koshering and curing meats. Kosher salt is also a popular choice among chefs, and home cooks mimic them when they see the chefs on television, says Kragt. ``We're always looking at trends," she says. The interest in special salts is so high, she adds, that ``really it's gone mainstream."

Another popular kosher salt in the professional kitchen is Diamond Crystal, which is pure salt, as opposed to Morton's kosher containing yellow prussiate of soda, an anti-caking agent.

Many consumers still use ordinary table salt on food, but many chefs believe that Morton's table salt has a harsh flavor, which some attribute to the addition of iodine or the anti-caking agent that is used to make the salt more pourable.

Rob Seideman, who began selling specialty salts through his company Salt Traders a few years ago, also questions how much of an impact trace minerals have on a salt's flavor. ``People say, ` Isn't salt salt?' and it's all sodium chloride. I'm not going to argue with that," says Seideman, who is based in Aspen. He believes that the key characteristic of any salt is its texture, and likens the impact on food to the difference between finishing a Caesar salad with finely ground Parmesan versus thick shavings.

Seideman, who offers several recipes on his website organized by salt type, will use chunky salts on crisp raw vegetables to add more crunch. Softer roasted vegetables will get a more delicate flake.

Steve Cook and his wife began harvesting salt from the Maine coast in 1998 and now sell Maine Sea Salt in stores across the country. Cook wasn't aware of any interest in specialty salts when they began the company. ``It just dawned on me, ` We could do this here,' " says Cook, who started out by offering sea salt packages for people to cook lobster. Based near Machias, he evaporates water in greenhouses to produce a salt that he describes as having a ``clean, saline, ocean flavor."

Specialty salts are typically used to sprinkle onto cooked food because their distinct qualities rarely stand up to the cooking process. At Sel de la Terre in Boston, sous chef Louis DiBiccari says the kitchen tends to finish dishes with fleur de sel. The restaurant likes using it alongside sweet flavors, and has combined it with white truffle oil, honey, and thyme and served it with ham.

Jay Murray, executive chef of Grill 23 & Bar, says his universal seasoning is grey salt or sel gris ground with sweet pimenton. He has tried other specialty salts but prefers sel gris, which is harvested from the same waters near France's Brittany that produce fleur de sel, for its flavor and tangible texture. ``You're kind of like sticking your fingers into sand," Murray says.

Even if his restaurant had a different name, Salts' chef Bremer says he would probably feature salt as part of the menu. He simply enjoys trying products that are indigenous to different parts of the world. ``It's interesting how something so common as salt can vary so greatly," he says.

Crystal persuasion
Christina's Spice and Specialty Foods, 1255 Cambridge St., Cambridge, 617-576-2090.
Didi Davis Food, 978-502-5021 or go to www.dididavisfood.com.
Maine Sea Salt Co., 207-255-3310 or go to www.maineseasalt.com.
Salt Traders, 800-641-7258 or go to www.salttraders.com.
SaltWorks, 800-353-7258 or go to www.saltworks.us.