Morton Salt’s Next Door Chef, Nashville

It’s not every night you’re invited to be a guest at dinner, and a camera crew comes along to film the event. See the girl on the left, in blue, saying “Seeeeeeea Salt”? That’s Chef Karl in the center and Chef Travis on the right.

Morton’s Salt sponsored this post as part of  their Next Door Chef Campaign.  All opinions are, of course, my own.

Dinner with Morton Salt

Last fall, I had the opportunity to attend a very exciting event, right here in little old Nashville: Morton Salt’s Next Door Chef event.

On Monday, March 20th, the video of that event went live! If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here: MortonSalt.com/NextDoorChef

Or right here:

Nashville’s #NextDoorChef

Chef Karl Worley coached Travis, a local Nashvillian, full-time musician, as well as a novice in the kitchen. Chef Carl is the chef of the very popular Nashville restaurant, Biscuit Love.

Together Travis and Carl produced a one-night-only pop-up restaurant called “Indie’s Kitchen” (named for Travis’ daughter). They served an amazing meal to a select group of guests, right in Travis’ backyard!

Chefs on Camera: Chef Karl Worley, Founder and Executive Chef of Biscuit Love on the left, Travis on the right

Travis’ wanted to lean to cook to impress his gorgeous wife, Claire. What woman wouldn’t love a guy like that?

But, truth to tell, he also hoped to gain some cooking skills he could share with their daughter, Indie. After all, isn’t it food that us all together? All of God’s chilluns gotta eat. So why not make great food, while you’re at it?

Our host, Travis, ~really~ wanted this gig to impress his wife. I’d say he surpassed his goal!

The Biggest Mistake You’re Making with Salt

Chef Worley taught Travis some very practical tips on how to make food more delicious. One area where home chefs typically struggle is in using the appropriate seasoning in food.

Because Morton Salt knows this, they want to raise awareness about Morton Salt’s different seasoning “tools.” Different types of salt are not just for professional chefs.They are easily accessible for home cooks, as well.

I use all three types in my cooking. And if you only use regular table salt for ALL your cooking needs, well, you’re doing it wrong!

Recipes with Morton Salt

The three types of salt: Morton Sea Salt – Coarse; Morton Kosher Salt; and Morton Sea Salt – Fine.

• Morton Kosher Salt has the largest sized crystal, of the three salts. It adds a gourmet touch to any dish. It’s preferred salt of so many chefs because it is easy to control for perfectly seasoned food.

• Morton Coarse Sea Salt adds an artistic “pop”, that you and your dinner guests can see and taste. The larger-than-table salt crystals provide contrasting texture.

• Morton Fine Sea Salt still adds a “pop”, yet is fine enough for blending in all cooking. The fine salt crystals dissolve quickly making them perfect for marinades, soups, sauces and dressings.

The Experience

The meal was remarkable on several levels: for a novice chef to cater a meal for a crowd is a huge undertaking.

A lesser person’s knees would  tremble if a professional chef, and his staff, and a camera crew invaded your kitchen and decorated your back yard. But Travis was amazing! He and Chef Worley and the entire team produced a lovely springtime meal with Southern flair.

All the recipes from that meal are available to you on Morton Salt’s Next Door Chef website. I highly recommend you check them out.

Each dish inspired the taste buds in its own way, and you could really taste how salt transformed each menu item.

This was probably my favorite menu item of the evening, due to the preserved lemons used as garnish for the drink.

As we entered “Indie’s Kitchen”, we were served a lovely Lemon Spring Tea (available with or without vodka!) from the bar. A beautifully mellowed slice of preserved lemon garnished the tea. Preserving lemons by storing them in a salt brine produces something extraordinary in the way of flavor.

I loved this recipe for preserving lemons that they shared with us (I often see preserved lemons called for as an ingredient in Moroccan and Middle Eastern dishes) that I made these today in my own home.

Expect to see a recipe or two in the near future on my blog, utilizing the lemons I preserved following their recipe.

More Morton Salt Recipes

A shot of the bar, as we entered Indie’s Kitchen.

Pimento Cheese, a Southern staple, was served on a twice baked cracker. You would not believe the difference a brush of butter, a sprinkle of coarse sea salt, and a few minutes in the oven can make to a lowly saltine cracker!

The Salt Roasted Beet Salad with Goat cheese was a reminder of how delicious a fresh roasted beet can be. The salt used to roast the beets conducted heat evenly and brought the flavor of the beets to life.

It’s amazing what a difference the right salt makes!

Chicken Country Captain is a chicken curry dish with a longstanding southern tradition: I’ve made this dish myself, and it’s delicious! They served the Country Captain on dish of Cheese Grits that were perfectly seasoned.

The meal was finished with a Biscuit Strawberry Shortcake, and Chef Worley used a salt-and-sugar brine on the strawberries to help coax out the juices.  Desserts ~do~ need salt, to bring life to the sweetness. What would a biscuit be, after all, without salt? But if you want to go lighter on the salt with that particular recipe…well, I won’t fault you.

Chef Karl and Chef Travis weren’t the only ones to make our evening memorable! The entire staff did a great job.

Are You a Next Door Chef?

The event in Nashville was Morton Salt’s second Next Door Chef event, the first having been shot in Chicago, which happens to also be the home city of Morton Salt.

The Nashville event featured springtime cooking, so the recipes released with the video are perfect for this time of year. Their next Next Door Chef event will be in New Orleans, this summer, so stay tuned to their website for some amazing summer cooking and grilling inspiration.

You can go to mortonsalt/nextdoorchef to see more pictures from our meal, learn how you could host your own Next Door Chef party. You can even use the same recipes we had at our event.

If you’d like to host your own “Next Door Chef” party, or have a recipe idea for using Morton Kosher or Sea Salt, post your photos using the hashtag: #NextDoorChef