I've been eating out for over 30 years. Low end, high end and pretty much everything in between. I don't know if it's because the media have been telling us that salt is bad for us but for the last 10 or so years, unless I'm eating in a really good place I find the lack of seasoning a real bugbear and incredibly bland. I don't like adding salt to food once it's been served as I don't particularly like the harsh, raw taste. Using salt properly enhances the flavour of food and is nothing to be scared of, we need it to stay alive after all.

When cooking for friends at home I used to hate it if someone reached for the salt before they've even tasted the bloody food! So now I don't even put it on the table. Don't get me wrong, I would happily provide salt if anyone asked but nobody ever has. I think seasoning properly is an art and well worth learning. I'm sorry, I know it is popular these days for people to never use salt in any of their cooking but I believe it's essential in good food. Go gentle on me, it's only an opinion!!

I agree completely. I'd go as far as to say that salt is essential to many vegetables, especially if boiled.

I put anchovies in nearly every dish containing meat (eg casserole) to get that lovely savoury and salty flavour.

Its a case of what you're used to. I don't salt veg, nor potatoes, rice or pasta as I'm diabetic so need to keep salt intake down. So I really don't like it when I do find somewhere has overdone the salt - gammon is frequently inedible to me now
Salt content did edge up to quite shocking levels in pre-prepared food in the '80s and '90s so an adjustment down was needed.
What I don't like is lack of anything taking salts place - chilli con carne that may as well be mince with beans for example.

I tend to agree about gammon, however the diabetic thing can be fixed. I was on the diabetic register for 11 years but for the last 6 years I've been off it. I eat once a day but have whatever I like. Fish, chips and mushy peas, pie and mash, anything really. I reckon you know what's good and bad for you, and you just have to make the right choices.

I'm not a huge fan of salt, but potatoes are foul when boiled in unsalted water.

I'll use "Saxa" or such just to mildly salt the water I boli veg in.

I always have a supply of sea/rock or Maldon salt that I use to season food I'm cooking.
I also blitz/ crush whole black peppers to season food I'm cooking.
I try to ensure that once food is plated it won't need further seasoning.


I have a few close friends who will always, when eating out, without even tasting food, liberally throw the salt shaker all over the food.
One has already had a heart attack.
Drives me nuts.

Whenever I go out for an English, I always ask for the blandest thing on the menu.

Haha, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title. I watched it again just the other day in fact.

99.99% of chefs (if not 100%) aggressively season their food for a reason. It tastes better.

I've sent stuff back for being to salty

I agree regarding processed food, which was always packed with salt and sugar to make it somewhere approaching palatable.

However with vegetables in general I think salting really enhances them and brings out the flavour. It can be argued that they should be served unsalted and for people to add salt as they see fit, but it isn't the same. Added salt at the point of dining gives a sharp nasty taste.

You now realise how bland ready meals (supermarket and some pub chains) really are.

I don't eat ready meals too often but they usually need a glug of soy sauce, a squirt of ketchup and/or chilli sauce, maybe some vinegar - obviously depending on what the ready meal is.

If out and about I have to rely on table salt and what ever satches or bottles the place has available.

Well yes so have I, but that doesn't really prove that food doesn't need to be seasoned does it?

I'm not diabetic, but like you, I never salt anything, there's no need. It's a case of what you're used to. Plenty of people have tea with 2 sugars and milk, I have neither although I used to. When i cut it out, it took a little getting used to but now if I have a tea or coffee and someone puts milk or sugar in by mistake, I can't drink it, it's horrible. Same if someone salts the food when cooking, if I'm eating out, I always ask if the chef will reduce the salt or leave it out completely. They usually do

Have you thought that maybe it's not bland but you have got so used to adding stuff to your food that now you have to do it just to get some flavour that you can taste.
It's like a drug, you have to take more and more as your body gets more and more used to it

I also used to put a lot of sugar in tea and now take none.
Wouldn't do the same with veg and salt though as I think salt enhances the flavour of the veg. Root vegetables especially.

Not really as it would be the same with all food and not just ready meals.

Have you ever thought why all chefs add salt if there is no need to?

Salt enhances flavours. So does fat in a meat.

I never add salt to anything, either during or after cooking. I would never dream of boiling vegetables anyway as I always steam them in the microwave, where salting would be silly. It just isn't necessary and it actually makes me cringe when I see people shaking salt all over their chips.

By the same token I never add sugar to anything either, especially raspberries and rhubarb. Whenever people handed doughnuts around at work, I would eat one to be polite, but couldn't unless I'd wiped all the sugar off first.

I don't think salt enhances the flavour at all, it's just something that some people have become conditioned into expecting.

So all chefs are wrong? Of course it enhances flavour.

Damn, whoever knew that all these top chefs have been wrong for all these years?

It doesn't enhance it at all – it alters it by making it salty, which is a taste I don't like.

That's all you need to say really.
Others like to season their food because they regard your preference as bland.
No right or wrong, just personal preference.

But a taste that most people do which is why food is seasoned. I'll take the opinion of all chefs against yours anyday.