‘Cooking water should be as salty as tears’ – an interview with Max Pasetti

Our brilliant Brand Ambassador Anna Shepherd has been busy this autumn, visiting some of her favourite chefs. Here, she caught up with Max Pasetti, one half of brilliant Bristol-based caterers Pasetti + Boote.

Anna chatted to Max about seasoning meat and fish, the power of brining, and what happens when you don’t use salt at all (spoiler – it’s not good!)

Huge thanks to Max for the chat, and if you’re in the market for an ingredients-led caterer who understands how to cook excellent food for a crowd, look no further than Pasetti + Boote. 

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How would you describe salt’s fundamental role in a dish?

We use a lot of salt for curing and brining, so it’s more of a process rather than an ingredient with a flavour profile if that makes sense? We get through a lot of salt here, and not all of that is going into the food, it serves to draw water out of big cuts of meat and fish. In fact, most of our meat and protein will get cured, or brined in one way or another.

What do you think a common mistake home cooks make when using salt that could drastically improve their cooking if remedied?

I think people should be putting a lot more salt in their cooking water. It should taste like a tear, or the sea.

All that salt’s not going into your food, it just saturates the water, so when your pasta or vegetables are cooking, they can take on some of that seasoning.

 

You want to blanch your green or veg, and not have to season it afterwards, otherwise the salt just sits on top and the vegetable itself will taste bland. You end up leeching all the flavour into the water and you get a waterlogged vegetable instead. Same with pasta water, if you season that properly, you end up with a really tasty stock that’s going to end up in your pasta sauce eventually, so you want to season it properly from the beginning. Also, always taste as you go because you’ll need more than a pinch.

How do you handle seasoning when you’re cooking for events at scale, vs at home?

When we’re cooking for a crowd, it’s often weighed out to percentages- our chicken gets brined at 5%, and then it doesn’t get seasoned again, so it’s always consistent. With any of the big recipes, it’s all weighed out and we’ve done it so many time that we know how to season for consistency with the other ingredients and the rest of the menu.

For a perfect sear on a piece of meat and fish, which would say is more important: salting well in advance to draw out the moisture or just before it hits the pan for a salty crunch?

Definitely with meat, season it well before you’re cooking it (a good 30 – 45 mins), to make sure the meat is tender. If you’re looking for a crispy fish skin, I’d sprinkle a bit of salt on the skin and cook it skin-side down in a hot pan.

Where do you think the type of salt you use might make a difference? Flakey or in a finer flake?

In a restaurant, I’m generally not touching the flaky salt at the prep stage. I’d use fine or coarse salt for seasoning water or liquids, and flaky salt for finishing.

Can you give me any examples of salty kitchen disasters?

There was a bread we made once, where we forgot to add any salt to the dough at all. It was gross. Worse than you can imagine, almost inedible. It just tasted of flour and yeast.