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David Ferguson, Le Jolifou, Montreal

For much of his training, David Ferguson, chef-owner of Le Jolifou, a popular high-end Montreal eatery, worked in classic French kitchens in which salt was used generously. But he learned a different approach during a stint cooking in New Mexico, where flavours were piqued by adding peppers, spices and citrus instead. The menu at Le Jolifou blends the two traditions. Duck confit, for example, is flavoured with a pasilla negra sauce; beef hanger steak is matched with chipotle peppers.

And lobster salad on homemade pappardelle gets a whole new twist with basil oil, mango and a pineapple reduction.

“The sweetness of the mango is balanced by the bitterness of the greens, the sourness of the pineapple and the natural salt and sweet of the lobster,” Mr. Ferguson says. “It works without adding much salt.”

When creating a dish, Mr. Ferguson looks to fresh herbs and products with strong flavours that diners experience through their noses.

“You experience the tastes sweet, salt, sour and bitter on your tongue,” he says. “Your brain also experiences flavour through the perfume of the basil and the fragrance of the pineapple.”

His advice to home chefs looking to reduce salt is to use flavourful, fresh produce that stimulates the tongue's other three senses. He calls prepackaged salad mixes “tasteless,” for example, and creates salads at Le Jolifou with peppery and bitter greens such as chicory and watercress.

Fats and proteins require salt, he says – but these foods can be salted directly instead of adding it to the whole dish. He advises, for example, salting only the eggs in a niçoise salad instead everything.

But even the saltiest restaurant dishes require less sodium than packaged supermarket fare. Duck confit calls for 12 grams of salt for each kilogram of duck – and this is wiped away after marinating overnight.

“I'd be shocked if you could find me a kilo of processed foods that only used 12 grams of salt.”

Grilled salmon with mango and avocado salsa

Ingredients

Salsa:
1 avocado
lime juice to taste
1 mango, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 green onion
fresh coriander
1 serrano pepper, finely chopped
1 cucumber, diced
olive oil to taste

Salmon:
700 grams fresh salmon
olive oil extra virgin

Method

For the salsa, cut avocado and cover with lime juice. Add all other ingredients and adjust to taste.

For the salmon, season the fish with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat for three minutes. Turn and grill for three minutes longer or until firm and springy when pressed with finger.

Serve with the salsa and enjoy.

Nancy Hinton, Jardins Sauvages, Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, Que.

Like most chefs, Nancy Hinton cannot imagine giving up salt. “I would have to be on my death bed,” she says. “With a knife to my throat.”

Ms. Hinton and her boyfriend, François Brouillard, own Jardins Sauvages, a rambling country table outside Montreal. The couple call their cuisine gastronomie forestière because of its use of wild plants and mushrooms.

She picks wild garlic, ginger, dandelion and milk weeds from the forest surrounding the restaurant, while he leaves for days at a time to pick mushrooms in northern Quebec.

Ms. Hinton says this sort of cooking involves much less salt consumption than buying packaged goods.

“When you cook with fresh produce and quality ingredients, the amount of salt you add for flavour is not harmful,” she says.

And often she uses products such as marine asparagus and other wild greens that pick up the saltiness of the St. Lawrence.

She just made a soup of sea spinach with corn and homemade bacon.

“Wild greens are so flavourful, they almost have a meaty taste,” she says. “You don't have to work as hard to bring out the flavour.”

To minimize salt, Ms. Hinton advises playing up contrasting colours and textures in dishes by adding items such as toasted nuts or flower petals. She also recommends ingredients that pack a lot of flavour: Sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cured meats and pickled vegetables contain salt, for example, but are potent in even small amounts.

For her, a low-salt salad may contain pickled beets, Nordic shrimp, crispy onions and fiddleheads.

“Lots of contrasting flavours waken the taste buds,” she says.

The contrast of adding sweet in the form of fruits, such as orange segments to a salad or appetizer, also enhances the natural salts present in produce and proteins.

“Prosciutto and melon uses that interplay between salty and sweet. The sweetness of the fruit makes the salt in the meat shine even more.”

Nordic shrimp and vegetable salad

Ingredients
2 cups fiddleheads or asparagus or green beans, cooked and cooled
a handful of sea asparagus (if available)
1 red pepper, minced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes or olives, chopped
2 minced scallions
salt to taste (or not at all)
1 lemon, zest and juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh herbs: parsley and dill or basil or coriander
Hot pepper/chili paste to taste
1 pound Nordic shrimp, cooked

Method

Combine all ingredients except shrimp and season to taste with lemon, olive oil, herbs and hot pepper. Add shrimp, toss and serve.

Serves 4.

Ryan Jennings, cookbook author, Toronto

Ryan Jennings knows a thing or two about vices. The Toronto food stylist transformed his love of alcohol and food into a vocation, co-authoring with David Steele two cookbooks: Cooking with Booze and Entertaining with Booze . Both celebrate alcohol as a flavour enhancer in savoury mains as well as desserts.

“Everything in moderation,” he says. “It's the same whether we are taking about alcohol or fat or salt.”

Mr. Jennings says wine, beer and spirits can be used as seasoning to bring out flavours in just about anything. His recipes suggest splashing cognac into butternut squash soup, pouring amaretto onto blueberry waffles and pairing Jagermeister with coddled eggs.

“There is always something you can find to balance your flavours,” he says.

The liqueur Cointreau, made with bitter oranges, is a favourite.

“I like it straight up in a vinaigrette. It goes well with spinach salad and other bitter greens.”

While Mr. Jennings acknowledges he adores salt, he says a little goes a long way.

A recipe of his for cauliflower and herb soup, which yields six servings, calls for only one teaspoon of salt, for example. The cauliflower's earthy flavours are brought out by cooking it in semillon wine while the soup is garnished with strips of prosciutto (which can be left off).

A recipe for grilled sirloin with a cognac coffee barbecue sauce calls for 11/2 teaspoons of salt to go with 1.5 kilograms of steak and the accompanying glaze.

The steak is marinated overnight in beer with garlic, while the barbecue sauce is made with tomatoes, espresso, cognac, molasses, chili powder and hot pepper sauce.

“Salt is terribly important to a chef,” Mr. Jennings says. “But you do not need to go overboard.

“Although I have been known to do so.”

Grilled scallops with maple bourbon glaze

Ingredients
8 large bamboo skewers
16 large sea scallops
16 slices prosciutto
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons bourbon
Pinch cayenne pepper

Method

Soak the bamboo skewers for at least 30 minutes in warm water.

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Wrap each scallop in a slice of prosciutto, allowing any excess to overlap. Secure two scallops onto each bamboo skewer. Lightly brush them with olive oil and set aside.

Whisk together the maple syrup, brown sugar, bourbon and cayenne pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Grill the skewers for 3-4 minutes, then flip and brush with glaze. Grill the second side for another 3-4 minutes, or until the centre of the scallops is opaque. Brush once more with glaze and serve.

Vikram Vij, Vij's, Vancouver

Vikram Vij is unapologetic about his love of salt. “I eat way more salt than I should,” says the owner of Vij's, the famed Indian-fusion restaurant in Vancouver.

“And more butter than I should, and more meat. I just love food.”

Still, Mr. Vij's restaurant fare remains considerably less salty than prepackaged supermarket goods. He says he usually adds salt at the end of a dish, to finish it, rather than at the beginning when he is browning the spices, which would require greater quantities to achieve the same effect.

While Indian cooking calls for generous amounts of salt, he says, flavours are also enhanced through a great deal of fresh and dried spices, peppers, pickles and chutneys.

But home cooks trying to reduce sodium should be wary of premade curry pastes and other prepackaged products, which have high salt contents.

“Once in a while when you are busy it's okay,” he says. “But really, if you have the time even to make your own salad dressing, you have the time to make your own curry. It's not that different.”

His advice is to keep cupboards stocked with basic items such as onions, ginger, canned tomatoes and a good garam masala mix – a basic blend of Indian spices including peppercorns, cumin, cloves, black cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander.

As an alternative to salt, he suggests sprinkling fenugreek leaves, either fresh or dried, on homemade dishes. “They have a beautiful aroma, almost like basil.”

When salt is used, it should be good quality, he says, such as kosher salt or fleur de sel, which he believes impart greater taste in smaller quantities than table salt.

And while Indian food is rich – some dishes are cooked with ghee, or clarified butter – he says historically the Indian diet included smaller portions than today's North American standards. As Indians have grown richer, so have their waistlines.

“I grew up on my mother's home cooking, seven days a week,” he says. “Going to a restaurant was something almost never [done]. It was a real event that would be planned like six months in advance.

“It's all very different now.”

Beets and daikon salad with cilantro

Ingredients
1 large beet (almost 1 pound)
5 ounces daikon
3/4 cup cilantro
1 teaspoon rock salt
2 ounces red onions, diced small
50 ml lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)
1/2 teaspoon mango powder
1 small tomato, diced small

Method

Peel the beet and daikon and dice them in small squares, keep them apart and do not mix them yet. Get all the rest of the ingredients ready.

Take a mixing bowl and mix all the ingredients. The freshness of the daikon and beets should stand out.

Taste the salad for salt and lemon juice. This is a side dish to be enjoyed with every kind of curry.