Salt: The Essential Guide to Cooking with the Most Important Ingredient in Your Kitchen

This book is not the ideal salt reference I was looking for as a professional chef. The section of different salts is not that big, and there are few pictures of the different types of salts. I was expecting a detailed reference with pictures of all the different types of salts. The bulk of the book is recipes which I do not care about. I probably will be returning this.

Like its namesake, Leslie Bilderback's Salt is a cookbook that is essential to any aspiring chef’s kitchen. Stuffed with modern takes on classic dishes that are known to be pounded with salt, Bilderback guides readers (like myself, who don’t cook often) through mouth-watering dishes that have afforded her career great fame. Before picking up the book, I was never aware of the extensive history behind my favorite ingredient. Total shocker! Don’t even get me started on the beautiful salt imagery that pops from each page; who knew there were so many types of colorful salt? Aside from the imagery, the book delivers easy to follow recipes that won’t consume an entire Sunday afternoon trying to make. There’s even a section solely dedicated to Bilderback’s lovely desserts that are beyond tasty. I cooked one of the dishes, using infused salts which Bilderback details how to make, after work one night for my roommate and I, and we we’re amazed by how simple changes to dishes we make daily can really change the entire meal’s outcome. And the end results are simply magnificent (after a few trial and error runs, of course). Definitely recommend for any salt lover!