Salt Talk

 Did you ever wonder why restaurant food tastes so good? It's because chefs season EVERYTHING! We use salt and pepper on just about everything we touch. Salt brings out flavors in all foods, sweet and savory. In a typical entree, the protein gets seasoned before it's cooked, the sauce has been seasoned, the vegetables, the starch, all of it.

 This may be one of the small things that is really a huge thing. If you want to improve your cooking, think about how you season your food. If you don't have high blood pressure or any other health concern about sodium, try a little more salt. I'm not talking about salty food, just well seasoned food. Salt the water before cooking pasta, salt the water to boil potatoes, salt your water to cook chick peas for hummus. Salt everything. It really makes a huge difference.

 I use mainly sea salt and kosher salt. Sea salt is great sprinkled directly on food. Kosher salt is good for salting cooking water. Fancy sea salt like Fleur du Sel is wonderful to finish dishes like tomato and mozzarella salads, or grilled flank steak.

 Salt can also serve as a great counterpoint to sweets. I make chocolate cream pie with a salted pie crust. Sea salt with caramel is a great contrast. I use salt in brownies and many cake recipes call for salt. Try sprinkling a few salted peanuts on a chocolate sundae. 

 Salt everything and remember to taste everything. You'll notice a lot of flavor in those fancy foods that take so long to source.