As featured in...

Salt, as any aspiring kitchen scientist can tell you, is a flavor enhancer. It’s not the star of a dish; it’s a supporting player—unless it’s really, really, really good salt. This past Tuesday, chef Michael Stanton of The Heathman Restaurant & Bar in Portland, Oregon, and selmelier Mark Bitterman of The Meadow (a specialty salt shop with locations in New York City and Portland) teamed up to create a dinner at the James Beard House in which weird and wonderful salts were the main event. There were salt block-cured sturgeon, salt-crusted morels and even a dessert of chocolate-covered pear dipped in three different salts. Here, five unique salts Bitterman and Stanton think everyone should try.       Taha’a Vanilla Sea SaltInfused with Tahitian vanilla pods, this flaky salt has the texture of phyllo dough. Its delicate flavor and subtle crunch make it a great finishing salt for mild, sweet seafood like crab or scallops. Takesumi Bamboo Carbonized Deep Sea SaltDark gray and crumbly, this flinty, oyster-esque salt is poured into bamboo capsules and incinerated in a kiln. The carbonized salt has an amazing superpower: It gives lean meats the illusion of fattiness. Alaskan Alder Smoked SaltAccording to Bitterman, this intensely smoky salt “tastes like the Yukon.” The large, crackling flakes are a beautiful pale pink and great for game meats as well as rich dishes like creamy risotto. Sale di CerviaThis granular salt taken from the Adriatic has a unique sweetness. Bitterman likens it to berries. Amabito No Moshio Japanese Sea SaltSuper-powdery and the color of a café au lait, this salt starts as a powder that’s scraped off drying seaweed. That powder is made into a brine, then boiled down until the salt crystals form. It’s packed with a ton of umami flavor. View Article>

What is salt? Chemists would say it’s sodium chloride, but why does it come in so many shapes and sizes? Mark Bitterman’s salt obsession began in France more than 25 years ago, when he met Michelin-starred chefs who traveled with their own precious supply. Along with his wife, Jennifer, Bitterman now owns a store called The Meadow, with branches in Portland, OR, and New York City that sell salts from all over the world. Many are tracked down by Bitterman or custom-made, like his house fleur de sel. In two other articles, Mark talks about How to Season with Salt and he names the six sins against salt.   Read "Lessons from Mark Bitterman"