# Restaurant Food and Salt
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 14, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213 "2007-09-14T18:25:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/1 "2007-09-14T18:25:41Z")
I searched for an answer but I couldn’t find any. I think there should be factual answer for this question. Mods feel free to move this to IMHO if appropriate.
Are there any restaurant Chefs out there?
My wife and I eat out fairly often, and we usually go to nice restaurants. When the food comes she immediately grabs the salt and adds some, without ever tasting the food. (She’s a salt-a-holic and likes her food on the salty side). She figures that chefs normally underseason food since customers may not appreciate the same level of “seasoning” the chef might think appropriate. Preparing bland food of course means the customer can add whatever seasonings they want.
I believe that chefs normally season food as it should be consumed, and that customers should sample the food first to see if additional salt or pepper is needed. They can then add all the salt or pepper they want… but that chefs don’t prepare bland food as a rule.
So the basic question is, do chefs purposely underseason food so that customers can add seasoning later or do they pre-season food based on how spicy they think the dish should be?
I realize that 10 different chefs might do 10 different things… but what do most chefs do and why do they do it?
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/2 "2007-09-14T18:36:58Z")
In general, most chefs will season the dish the way they feel it should be consumed.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/3 "2007-09-14T19:16:58Z")
[QUOTE=dolphinboy]
She figures that chefs normally underseason food since customers may not appreciate the same level of “seasoning” the chef might think appropriate. Preparing bland food of course means the customer can add whatever seasonings they want.
[/QUOTE]
If we are talking dennys, she might have a point, Chez Drach @ $50/plate, don’t let the cook see you he might be highly offended.
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### Author:  [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/4 "2007-09-14T19:33:29Z")
Former chef/current restaurant GM here. In my experience, a chef would not intentionally underseason a recipe so that the customer can “fix” it. Dishes should always leave the kitchen as close to perfection as possible…temps, presentation, consistency, _and_ flavor.
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### Author:  [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/5 "2007-09-14T19:41:40Z")
Not a chef, but I’m trying to imagine Gordon Ramsay intentionally preparing bland food so the customer can “fix” it. Can’t quite do it…
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### Author:  [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/6 "2007-09-14T19:41:56Z")
[QUOTE=dolphinboy]
I believe … that customers should sample the food first to see if additional salt or pepper is needed.
[/QUOTE]
That is proper etiquette.
When paying close attention to one’s weight, eating out is often discouraged, since the food is often oversalted (as well as the larger portions.)
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/7 "2007-09-14T19:50:49Z")
If I’m at an unfamiliar restaurant, I won’t modify _anything_ until I’ve tasted it. This includes salt, hot sauce, barbecue sauce, butter, pepper, etc. Once I’ve tried it, I may make modifications.
Exception: Fresh ground pepper on a Caesar salad.
If it’s a restaurant that I know and go to regularly, then I know what to expect, and I’ll know whether it needs some green Tabasco sauce, Parmesan cheese, or fresh ground pepper.
I can’t recall ever needing to add salt to anything in a restaurant, except the occasional baked potato.
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/8 "2007-09-14T20:27:31Z")
Thanks eveyone. As I said, my wife is addicted to salt and pours it on without checking first to see if it “needs” it. Some people can’t seem to get enough salt in their diet! And yes, I know there is a link between salt intake and hypertensive disease…
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### Author:  [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/9 "2007-09-14T20:37:53Z")
She probably doesn’t even realize how salty her food is getting. See if you can get her to slowly cut back, and eventually she’ll notice how gross oversalted food is.
Of course, you’ll never get me to stop pouring salt on a nice cold hunk of roast beef…
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/10 "2007-09-14T20:52:45Z")
The fact that chefs prepare food to be “correctly” seasoned, does not mean that your wife is wrong for always adding salt. If she prefers extra salty food, then the vast, vast majority of properly prepared restaurant foods will seem under salted to her, because almost no chef would keep his job while salting food to levels she likes.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/11 "2007-09-14T21:09:10Z")
Remember that (despite what many professional chefs will tell you) taste is _subjective_. Some people like their food unsalted; some need a salt lick on the table. Some like hot dogs with that grotesque yellow stuff that’s known in ball parks as “mustard”; some like hot dogs with spicy brown mustard; and some like them with catsup.
The way your wife likes her food isn’t “wrong,” no matter what anyone else says.
Still–I’d always rather taste the food first before adding seasonings.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/12 "2007-09-14T23:13:50Z")
A perfect question for Cafe Society. Moved.
**samclem** GQ moderator
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### Author:  [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/13 "2007-09-15T01:34:14Z")
My husband also likes his food very salty. I don’t, but I’m a pretty good cook, and I season appropriately for the tastes of most people. I used to get offended when he would salt his food before tasting, until some poster here (I forget who, but he made a good point) suggested that my husband knew my cooking, and knew that I used less salt than he preferred, hence the pre-tasting salting.
Whoever that poster was, thanks for heading off a lot of marital arguments.
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### Author:  [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/14 "2007-09-15T07:49:13Z")
I use salt sparingly in my recipes, but then I know, that my cooking audience invariably overseasons/oversalts everything, so I kind of leave it up to the persons preference. If I make something for an audience outside of my usual “people”, as a “chef” I season slightly left of center (a touch liberal) with salt and pepper. I think moist chefs do… of course it depends on what they are seasoning, I might overseason my meat, and cut back for a more flavorful sauce ferinstance.
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### Author:  [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/15 "2007-09-15T08:52:26Z")
[QUOTE=J Cubed]
She probably doesn’t even realize how salty her food is getting. See if you can get her to slowly cut back, and eventually she’ll notice how gross oversalted food is.
[/QUOTE]
While you find “oversalted” food gross many will find “undersalted” food gross. Just eat your food and let your wife salt (assault?) hers.
Why do people care about someone elses salt preference?
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### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/16 "2007-09-15T08:54:37Z")
Because a high intake of salt over an extended period of time is hazardous to your health?
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### Author:  [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/17 "2007-09-15T16:53:50Z")
[QUOTE=sandra\_nz]
Because a high intake of salt over an extended period of time is hazardous to your health?
[/QUOTE]
In terms of high blood pressure, that’s not necessarily true.
There’s research that shows that some people are most “salt sensitive” than others. In a salt sensitive person, higher salt consumption increases blood pressure. But if you’re not sensitive, salt consumption has little effect. Probably many people who have high blood pressure are salt sensitive and should decrease their salt usage, but if you’re healthy and don’t have high blood pressure, you don’t need to decrease salt use “just because.”
Cite: [http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/3/481](http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/3/481)
> [@](#):
>
> **Summary**
>
> Abundant evidence from epidemiological and interventional studies has established heterogeneity in the blood pressure responses of humans to alterations in sodium and extracellular fluid balance. Such changes have been demonstrated in both normotensive and hypertensive subjects. Although the manipulations and criteria used for the assessment of salt responsiveness in humans have differed among investigators, there has been general agreement regarding the major observations. The techniques used have been found to be reproducible when repeated in the same subject, and the responses of at least two different protocols have yielded congruent responses when tested in the same subjects. Some consistent demographic factors, such as older age, black race, and perhaps female sex, have been shown to be associated with an increased frequency of salt sensitivity. Evidence has also been found to support the notion that blood pressure response to changes in salt balance may be genetically determined.
>
> Extensive studies have been conducted to identify the physiological abnormality responsible for the heterogeneity of salt responses. Alterations in the renal handling of salt loads have been shown in salt-sensitive subjects as well as several abnormalities of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Salt-sensitive subjects are reported to have lower levels of renin and aldosterone than their salt-resistant counterparts. It is not clear whether this is a primary event, a response to real or perceived extracellular volume expansion, or a permissive component that allows a greater decrease in blood pressure with sodium and volume depletion. ANF and renal kallikrein have also been implicated by some studies. A role for the sympathetic nervous system or its receptors has also been suggested by some investigators. Abnormalities of ion transport, involving vascular smooth muscle as well as renal tubular cells, have been invoked, perhaps linked not only to sodium transport but to the ion transport of calcium and potassium as well. Other investigators have proposed a role for abnormalities in the response to insulin in salt sensitivity of blood pressure, but this link is not clearly established. Recent studies of endothelin and nitric oxide indicate that they are also plausible candidates for involvement in salt-sensitive vascular responses.
>
> At present, we recognize that a variety of factors can induce, or prevent, blood pressure responsiveness to the manipulation of salt balance. Future studies should elucidate the genetic basis for this phenomenon and identify factors, inherent or acquired, contributing to it; the compensatory mechanisms that typically guard against the pressor actions of salt loads and that may be impaired in some individuals; and more effective ways of treating this response. Finally, such information should provide the basis for an approach to the primary prevention of salt-sensitive forms of hypertension in humans.
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### Author:  [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/18 "2007-09-15T17:27:52Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew]
I think moist chefs do…
[/QUOTE]
What do drier chefs do?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restaurant-food-and-salt/419213/19 "2007-09-15T18:35:29Z")
[QUOTE=calm kiwi]
Why do people care about someone elses salt preference?
[/QUOTE]
For the same reason that they care how someone else wants their steak cooked, or what condiments they put on their hamburger, or what mixers they want in their drinks…
It baffles me completely. I really could not care less what you eat or how you prepare it as long as it doesn’t produce some obnoxious sound or noxious odor that would ruin my meal.