Daniel Boulud has spent more than three decades shaping the culinary landscape of New York City, and his influence shows no signs of slowing down. From his Michelin-starred restaurant Daniel, which has been a landmark of French haute cuisine since 1993, to his newer venture La Tête d’Or which opened in 2025, Boulud has consistently proven that unforgettable food is both an art and a discipline. With 19 restaurants spread across the globe, he has built a reputation not just as a brilliant cook, but as an exceptional host and mentor. Acclaimed chefs like Gavin Kaysen, Andrew Carmellini, and Aaron Bludorn all came up under his guidance.
When Boulud teamed up with two popular Parisian content creators known on Instagram as @atfrenchies, Alex and Tom, to share a video on how to season food the French way, the internet took notice fast. The clip racked up more than six million views, sparking widespread curiosity about how a professional at his level actually approaches something as simple as adding salt. Food & Wine sat down with Boulud to get a more detailed look at his methods, and what he shared is both practical and enlightening.
One of Boulud’s core techniques involves using your fingers rather than a spoon to gauge how much salt you’re adding. He outlines four distinct approaches depending on what you’re seasoning, ranging from a gentle two-finger sprinkle to a full four-finger sweep for larger cuts of meat. A simple fish fillet, for instance, might only warrant a light two-finger dusting, while something like a whole roast would call for the broader application. The reasoning behind this method isn’t just theatrical; it’s about developing a consistent, intuitive feel for the right amount over time.
Consistency in the type of salt you use is equally important to Boulud. He explained that across his entire restaurant group, the standard is fine sel de mer, a sea salt harvested from the French coast. As he put it, “Throughout our company we use sel de mer… I use it because, as you can see in the video, it’s already hard enough to teach someone to salt.” Switching between salt types mid-learning, he noted, makes it harder to internalize what proper seasoning actually looks and feels like. His advice is direct: “It’s important to use fine salt for seasoning and to be mindful. That’s why I mentioned two, three, or four fingers. It depends on the thickness and size of what you are salting.”
When it comes to salting water for pasta or grains, Boulud says you can afford to use kosher salt, which tends to be a more budget-friendly option than sel de mer. He encourages home cooks to actually taste their cooking water before going further, since it’s easy enough to adjust at that stage. “When you work with salt and liquid, you always need to be careful,” he said, adding that tasting pasta water with a spoon is a completely reasonable and useful habit. Soups, however, require an extra layer of caution because they’re much harder to fix once over-salted.
Boulud is particularly firm about the approach to soups. “When you prepare a soup, it’s very difficult to take the salt out if you’ve over-salted it, so you have to dilute it. That’s why soup always needs to be seasoned carefully. Only at the end, when the soup is done, taste it and then carefully add more salt until you achieve the perfect balance,” he told Food & Wine. The solution he recommends is to salt gradually and taste repeatedly throughout the cooking process rather than committing to a heavy hand early on. He also noted that using a salt grinder is a reasonable alternative for those who aren’t comfortable seasoning with their fingers, since it still allows for careful, controlled application.
Salt is one of the most ancient and essential ingredients in cooking, with evidence of its use dating back over 8,000 years. It serves multiple functions beyond just flavor, including drawing out moisture, preserving food, and enhancing the natural taste of ingredients by suppressing bitterness. There are many varieties used in professional kitchens today, including kosher salt, which has larger, coarser grains that make it easier to handle and less likely to over-season, and fleur de sel or sel de mer, which are prized for their delicate mineral flavor and are commonly produced along the Atlantic coast of France. Fine sea salt dissolves more quickly and evenly, which is why it is often preferred for cooking rather than finishing. The way salt is applied, whether pinched, sprinkled, or ground, can dramatically affect how evenly it distributes across food, which is why professional chefs pay such close attention to the technique behind something that most home cooks treat as an afterthought.
If you’ve ever wondered why restaurant food tastes so much better than what comes out of your home kitchen, proper seasoning technique is often the answer, so share your own salting habits and tips in the comments.
