Gaby Alves talks about what makes SALT taste good

SALT is the new restaurant from Gaby Alves, the face behind Alameda. With her new venture, Alves brings “contemporary cuisine” to an ancient city. The new restaurant, located in Lido on the second floor of the Trio building, opened its doors on November 28. We sat down with Alves for a preview of Beijing’s hottest new dining experience.

CW: So why the name “SALT”? It’s not because the food’s salty, right?
Alves: (Laughing) Salt is essential to every cuisine and to every dish, even if it’s not noticed. The expression “salt of the earth” comes from the fact that salt comes from the earth; it’s real. We will explore salt in the food, with different colors and flavors.

CW: What do you mean “different colors”? Isn’t all salt white?
Alves: You can get reddish salt, black salt, brown salt and white salt, and if you want to dye it and play with the flavors, you can. We will have wild salts on each table so you can play with it and taste it yourself.

CW: What kind of preparatory work was done for SALT? We hear one of the chefs “scoured the globe” for inspiration.
Alves: Yes, Chef Vivi, my ex-partner from Alameda, is researching all over the world for SALT. She will try to bring us wild salt and is researching the history of salt. The head chef, Daniel, is responsible for the menu construction.

CW: What are your favorite international cuisines and how are these reflected in the menu?
Alves: My tastes are quite diverse, but I’m not really into fusion, since sometimes the flavors don’t match. I like mixtures of herbs but not ingredients in terms of food. I love Spanish food, and Latin cuisine has beautiful, amazing flavors, tropical flavors. I like Nordic cuisine, but it’s colder, and heavy. I don’t like things to be too heavy. Healthy is more important.

CW: What would you say to customers on low sodium diets?
Alves: Should they avoid SALT? No, I think they should taste the salt of “SALT” in the right measure—no more, no less—so it will never be harmful to their health. SALT is actually very healthy. It doesn’t harm your pocket, and it doesn’t harm your health!

–Sienna Parulis-Cook