Morel’s French Steakhouse & Bistro
By Tara de Lis
For dineLA.com
Growing up, we were taught that salt was the “hidden killer,” and should be used only sparingly. It was considered gauche to add salt to a dish after presentation, lest you offend the chef who toiled to prepare it.
Now salt is very much in fashion. It’s practically the new pork. Steakhouses are offering tableside salt samplers to season their dry-aged beef, and sprinkles of finishing salts are adding complexity to fish, poultry and vegetables. Even desserts are balanced with it. Best of all, we’re learning that salt itself isn’t inherently an offender; it’s actually all that processed stuff we’d been conditioned to think of as generic salt.
Chefs are solidifying connections with food purveyors known for their artisan, sustainable sources. Salt specialists are catering to professional chefs and aspiring amateurs.
One such local company, Saltistry, was co-founded by Joni Fay Hill, a former chef at Balboa Steakhouse (now BOA) on the Strip. Her motto: “Ban the shaker!” She feels strongly that good salt, i.e., not the bleached, heavily iodized stuff, can actually be good for us in moderation. “Salt contains important trace minerals that have otherwise been scrubbed from everyone’s diet,” she stresses. It turns out good salt has far less sodium, too.
Hill is a self-described “weird little scientist,” crafting everything from traditional “purist” varieties to rare finds like fennel pollen and “robust” blends such as mushroom herb and smoked chili.
Her products can be found at Yamashiro in Hollywood, where slices of dry-aged Kobe-style rib-eye are sent out sizzling on a Himalayan pink salt plate, a la very upscale fajitas. At 8oz Burger Bar, Himalayan pink is also utilized; here, the signature Black Angus house blend is seasoned in salt-tiled lockers. The Dining Room at the Langham’s Chef de Cuisine, Craig Strong, was given a pink slab as a present and is now a big proponent of its use in searing fish tableside.
Morel’s French Steakhouse & Bistro at the Grove offers an elegant selection of premium salts to taste along with Prime steaks like the well-marbled rib-eye cap; visit over the holidays for imaginative dishes like beef shank or lamb finished with fumee de sel, a sea salt smoked in wine barrels.
Preparations at BOA steakhouses include a rotating mix of steak-friendly seasonings, plus, Brittany sel gris for the charred tuna tartare. Sister Sushi Roku restaurants are adding Okinawa sea salt to select nigiri, as well as variations of the dazzling snapper carpaccio, which may come with hand-shaved Jurassic rock salt or a black volcanic, depending on the location. Innovative Dining Group Operations Manager, Brent Berkowitz, explains, “We do have some set menu items and recipes, but we also give [our chefs] tremendous autonomy.”
We can only guess that independence is a factor at the Bonaventure’s towering L.A. Prime; named after the best grade of beef, chefs here also create solid seafaring cuisine. A signature house-smoked hickory salt graces tender Peruvian scallops; cod is cleverly garnished with black sea salt infused with Umbrian truffle oil.
Baleen at the Portofino in Redondo Beach is turning out some interesting specials like fresh halibut with porcini-truffle salt. A great menu mainstay is the sea salt-roasted crispy-skinned half chicken.
Fig’s reputation for eco-friendly eats now precedes it; Filipino Pangasinan salt is used throughout the menu. As chef Ray Garcia describes, “It’s naturally white, hand-harvested, sustainable and comes out of one of the country’s lesser developed areas, a region otherwise without industry.”
Jean Francois Meteigner has introduced a more affordable bistro menu at his newcomer La Cachette Bistro; among them is a compressed papaya served with homemade brandade. The artful dish is designed to mimic a smoked salmon presentation, the flattened, almost translucent fruit replicating the fish’s texture.
One of Providence’s signature dishes is the Kosher salt-baked Santa Barbara spot prawns. Ironically, the preparation started out as a matter of practicality—this was simply the most time-efficient, tank-to-table transport. Occasionally, Chef/owner Michael Cimarusti also busts out his favorite salt, the “woodsy” Halen Mon from Wales, which “doesn’t quite take the place of actual grilling, but comes close.”
His pastry chef, Adrian Vasquez, puts salt on pretty much everything, including the imaginative chocolate ganache with vanilla fleur de sol and foie gras ice cream.
Since day one, Pizzeria Mozza’s signature dessert has been the butterscotch budino, a rich pudding-like treat with caramel sauce and Maldon salt.
Casual eateries are getting in on the action, too. Spitz downtown, best known for its Turkish doner kebab sandwiches, also offers slightly sweet seasoned salt on their fries and on the just-crispy-enough pita chips. Though the blend is proprietary, co-owner Robert Wicklund will disclose that its base is a “unique” sea salt combined with unrefined sugar and chili powder.
At La Casita, regional salts play a key role in the cuisine. Sal de Colima is used in ceviches, Oaxacan salt is employed to remove the sour flavor from tomatillos, and smoked salt from Chihuahua cures thin cuts of beef known as cecina.
Chef/owner John Sedlar’s uses salt throughout the menu at Rivera, but the dish that has everyone talking is actually a drink. The mescal-based Donaji cocktail is rimmed with cricket salt—Sedlar prefers it to traditional worm salt.
At the Varnish, bar chefs like Marcos Tello are crafting artisan cocktails with fresh-cracked sea salt. An off-the-menu order, the Gordon’s Cup features muddled limes, cucumber and gin with the not-so secret ingredient ground on top.
8oz. Burger Bar, 7661 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, 323.852.0008
BOA Steakhouse, 101 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, 310.899.4466
Baleen, 260 Portofino Way, Redondo Beach, 310.372.1202
Fig, 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, 310.319.3111
L.A. Prime, 404 S. Figueroa St, Los Angeles, 213.624.1000
La Cachette, 10506 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, 310.470.4992
La Casita, 4030 East Gage Ave, Bell, 323.773.1898
Morel’s French Steakhouse & Bistro, 189 The Grove Dr, Los Angeles, 323.965.9595
Pizzeria Mozza, 641 N. Highland Ave, Los Angeles, 323.297.0101
Providence, 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, 323.460.4170
Rivera, 1050 S. Flower St, Los Angeles, 213.749.1460
Saltistry, www.saltistry.us, 310.621.6015
Spitz, 2506 Colorado Blvd, Eagle Rock, 323.257.5600
Sushi Roku, 1401 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, 310.458.4771
The Dining Room at the Lanham, 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave, Pasadena, 626.568.3900
The Varnish, 118 E. Sixth St, Los Angeles, 213.622.9999
Yamashiro, 1999 N. Sycamore Ave, Hollywood, 323.466.5125
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