Am I the only one who thinks the 'no salt until the end' rule is costing us flavor?

Nathan Thompson · 2026-10-02T19:30:03.382796+00:00

I've been running the line at a spot in Portland for 11 years, and about 8 months ago the new sous came in with this hard rule: no salt in the pans, only finish at the plate. For the first 6 weeks I did it his way, and our ticket times actually went up because we were re-firing dishes the servers sent back as flat. Then I pulled out my old notebook from culinary school and started salting my onion base at the start again, just 2 pinches per quart, and the comeback rate on our braised short rib dropped from about 9 a week to 2. His rule makes sense for a sliced tomato or a piece of fish, but for anything that cooks down for an hour the salt has to go in early or it never gets to the middle. Any other line cooks out there getting told to hold salt until the end, and how are you handling it with your chef?

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Am I the only one who thinks the 'no salt until the end' rule is costing us flavor? | Chefs - SMM Buzz