Everything You Want (and Need) to Know About Salt
This guide explores the surprising diversity of salt varieties and their distinct culinary applications, moving beyond the uniform industrial table salt that dominated the 20th century. The author traces how chefs like Ferran Adrià and Alice Waters rediscovered traditionally made salts—fleur de sel, flake salt, sel gris—and found that their delicate crystals and mineral complexity transformed dishes in ways granular salt couldn't. The piece breaks down the key differences between common types (table salt's metallic harshness, kosher salt's coarse grains, flake salt's pyramidal structure) and explains when to use each, from finishing dishes with fleur de sel's briny complexity to cooking pasta with coarser sea salt.