When Mark Zoske sits down in a restaurant, he pours a little salt out of the shaker. But Zoske isn't just playing around. The founder of SaltWorks, Inc. is checking the quality of the salt—and most times, Zoske is dismayed to find ordinary refined table salt.
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 15, 2005 /PRNewswire/ — It is all the more puzzling to Zoske because he knows how hard restaurant owners and chefs work to obtain the best raw ingredients. From USDA Prime grade beef and certified organic vegetables to seafood flown in for optimal freshness and perfectly complementary side dishes and wines, no detail is overlooked. Except, perhaps, the salt.
"The last thing customers put on their food, and the first thing they taste, is salt," said Zoske. "Yet only a handful of restaurants and chefs use sea salts on their tables and in their recipes."
Zoske contends that every fine restaurant should provide high-quality sea salt on the table. At less than a penny per customer, it is less expensive than most people think. But more important to the customer, sea salt is healthier and tastes much better than plain table salt.
The product of clean sea water evaporated by the sun, hand-harvested sea salt contains the trace elements, nutrients and taste that are routinely stripped from mined salt during the refining process. It is a world apart from the sodium chloride most people know as salt. In fact, there are several types of sea salts, including Fleur de Sel, flake salt, pure ocean mill and grinder salt and stone ground grey salt (Sel Gris), specifically used for finishing food.
So what would Zoske recommend for restaurants interested in improving the quality of their salt?
"Bare minimum, fill the salt shakers with Sonoma Gourmet Sea Salt," he advised. For a better restaurant, Zoske suggested putting Pure Ocean® Sea Salt in a ceramic or acrylic salt mill on every table and letting the customers choose the size to grind it. For the very high end, said Zoske, bring a flight of three finishing salts: Artisan Salt Company's Fleur de Sel, Murray River Pink Flake Salt, and Salish® Alderwood Smoked Salt. And organic or vegetarian restaurants should fill their shakers with Sel Gris whole mineral sea salt.
For those interested in learning more about the different types of sea salts and their uses in home kitchens and restaurants, SaltWorks provides an extensive Gourmet Salt Guide.
About SaltWorks®, Inc.
The most trusted name in the salt business, SaltWorks has been satisfying salt enthusiasts around the world since 2001. Serving wholesale, distributor, and bulk customers as well as individual consumers, SaltWorks offers a superior selection of the highest quality all-natural sea and mineral salts in a range of exact grain sizes and quantities to suit any application. The first and largest specialty salt company in the world, SaltWorks truly pioneered the gourmet salt business and produces the finest brands including Artisan® Salt Company, Fusion® naturally flavored salts, Ancient Ocean® Himalayan Pink Salt, Pure Ocean® Atlantic Sea Salt, Pacific Blue® Kosher Flake Sea Salt, Ultra Epsom® and Bokek® Premium Dead Sea Salt. SaltWorks continues to revolutionize the natural salt industry with their steadfast dedication to innovation, product integrity and world-class customer service. Proudly certified SQF level 2 with an Excellent rating, SaltWorks is also fully HAACP and GMP accredited by NSF International®. All SaltWorks products are all natural, kosher certified and guaranteed for purity and quality.
Discover the SaltWorks Difference and shop the best sea salts in the world at www.seasalt.com.