Salt makes or breaks a dish. This is what any experienced chef will tell you.

The big mistake a lot of people (and chefs for that matter) make when seasoning is the combine all the ingredients and the season the final result.

If you want a really tasty and refined result, then the way to do it is by seasoning each element separately before putting them together. Of course this is not the case if what you’re making is a casserole. We are in salad territory here.

There’s couple of good reasons for this:

1. Salt draws out and concentrates flavour. You want that salt to work directly on the ingredient.

2. The overall amount of seasoning will be more precise.

A really great example that we’ll go through below is the tomato salad. But most vegetables you’d use in a salad benefit greatly from being separately seasoned. Vinegar or lemon juice is another important in many instances. Particularly when it comes to cabbages. The best way to treat cabbages is to slice thinly and then massage with salt and some form of acidity. Finely sliced celery also loves this treatment.

Now for the best ever tomato salad. The disclaimer is of course that if you start with rubbish quality tomatoes, then the this approach will only do so much — but still make it a hell of a lot better then if you didn’t apply it. That’s the reason why fresh tomatoes should be eaten when they’re in season — not in the middle of winter. Cut the tomatoes up and then season with flakey sea salt and possibly a little sugar (depends how sweet they already are), and leave them for five to ten minutes. The salt will draw out and intensify the flavour.

Ingredients

• Tomatoes

• Flaky sea salt

• Sugar (only needed in case the tomatoes that are a bit too acidic)

• Balsamic or red wine vinegar

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Basil or parsley

• Red onion or shallot (optional)

• Mozzarella (optional)

• Black pepper (optional)

Method

• Cut the tomatoes up then season and sprinkle with sea salt and possibly a little sugar. A great way is to cut in wedges and then toss with sea salt in a bowl. If you’re slicing them in rounds then it needs to happen on a plate. Either way. Season well and then leave them for at least ten minutes.

• Drizzle first with vinegar and then with olive oil.

• Finely add cheese, herbs, or whatever else you are adding.  

If you are using onion, then finely dice or slice these and season with salt, sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Stir and bash around really well to get the salt and acidity working on the onion.

This will remove the raw onion taste and give a much more rounded and delicious final result.