E AT & D R I N K
DISCOVERIES
Salt Life
Jonathan Richards revives the dying art of handharvesting sea salt to create Palm Beach Salt Company Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT
T
he pyramids shimmer in the sunlight. The tiny, crystallized peaks—masterfully created by Mother Nature rather than by an artist’s hand—are what Jonathan Richards strives for during the 500-hour process it takes to transform hand-harvested seawater into natural flaky salt. Born in Tampa and raised in Maryland, Richards followed his parents down to South Florida 10 years ago for a life away from the cold. With a talent for cooking and a drive to bring out the best flavors in his ingredients, he worked with local lauded chefs like Lindsay Autry, Sean Brasel and Julien Gremaud, who helped him fine-tune his craft and appreciation for working with quality products. However, it wasn’t until he watched the documentary“Salt Fat Acid Heat”a few years ago that a light bulb went off. The dying art of hand-harvesting sea salt was something he knew nothing about, but he dove in headfirst. With a bucket filled with seawater sloshing around in his backseat, Richards left the beach and went home to start experimenting. After endless hours of tweaking the process of extracting the salt from the seawater, he finally figured out the right formulas for filtration, temperature, humidity, vapor pressure and barometric pressure to get his ideal flake structure. He was then ready to launch Palm Beach Salt Company, which came to fruition in 2022. It all starts with his advanced filtration system, which filters down to .5 microns; for perspective, a strand of human hair is about 70 microns thick. This enables Richards to remove microplastics from his final product. He’s laser-focused on harvesting local Palm Beach seawater and producing a mineral-dense salt that’s toxin-free. “It has a more dynamic taste, it’s a lot punchier,”he says of his salt flakes. “A lot of people say,‘oh, it’s salty,’ but it’s actually less sodium chloride. The backend is the minerality that causes that extra flavor and robustness.” Products from Palm Beach Salt Company
Jonathan Richards
He also produces infused salts with flavors like garlic, lemon, herbs de Palm Beach, black truffle, hibiscus lime and Pumphouse Coffee. Richards entered the salt industry as a chef aiming to create the finest salt that would help himself and others best enhance the flavors of food. Throughout the process, his interest and knowledge of salt’s minerality in terms of health benefits has been an admirable byproduct. While he’s quick to stress that he’s not a doctor, he says his job as a salt maker gives him the expertise to agree when people say to him that salt is bad, with one caveat: “Processed salt is bad, just like processed food is,” he explains.“Table salt, a lot of the pink Himalayan salt, most of the salts you see at the grocery store, are refined to a degree. Many of them contain additives, such as anticaking agents.” Richard is working on holistic offshoot products like Liquid Ocean Minerals, a magnesium topical spray used as a sleep aid, and bath salts for relaxation and recovery. “I love cooking, but I feel like if I have a product that has the mineral composition that makes our bodies tick in a better trajectory towards health and wellness, it adds more value to the community and to Palm Beach as a whole than just a beautiful salt to finish with.” FAVORITE FOOD PAIRING: Steak and Local Flake Sea Salt are all you need in life. UNIQUE PAIRING: Pineapple with Hibiscus Lime Salt—the salt brings out the natural sugars and accentuates the tangy. THIS VALENTINE’S DAY: Arrange ripe tomato and creamy burrata slices into a heart, and sprinkle with Local Flake Sea Salt. FIND IT: West Palm Beach GreenMarket, Delray Beach GreenMarket, Palm Beach Meats, Meat Market Palm Beach, Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market or online at palmbeachsaltcompany.com
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