Our summer menu, which has been on for a month now, features the signature bread dish served with roasted meat—pecsenye in Hungarian—and a range of exciting new dishes that evoke our favourite childhood flavours while focusing on our love for nature and sustainability.
From the beginning, SALT’s menu has been defined by the core values most important to Szilárd and the team—and the creation of the new dishes was no different. During the several months of planning, seasonality was as much a priority as making sure that we used every possible part of the animals. Naturally, the best traditions of Szatmár and Transylvanian peasant food were both a defining factor, and there’s also a classic favourite from the Austro-Hungarian Empire: pasta with cabbage.
Of course, the latter—even if it tastes like it—is not the same pasta with cabbage we remember from home or the canteen: Szilárd added fermented pepper and goose fat to the crispy cabbage, and the kitchen team does not take sides in the age-old “salty, sweet or sweet-and-salty” debate: whether you choose a sweet or savoury version of this dish that’s rarely a part of restaurant menus, is entirely up to you.
Another exciting dish on the menu for its humble main ingredient is the slow-cooked pork tongue served with fermented rhubarb, rose and winter savory. Offal—which used to play an important role in Hungarian cuisine—has become less popular in recent decades appearing on Hungarian tables only as rare delicacies or avoided altogether.
However, using these cuts of meat fits well with SALT’s philosophy of kitchen sustainability: utilising all parts of the animal in a dignified way generates less waste and creates a more ethical approach to consuming meat.
Let us highlight another cosy dish from the menu, inspired by traditional Hungarian cuisine: the Golden Soup with homemade sour cream and paprika-flavoured chicken fat is accompanied by a sour milk pie filled with ramson cream, This dish also gives a nod to the love of potatoes characteristic of Transylvanian peasant kitchen.
SALT’s new menu is shaped by Szilárd’s creative ideas and the crew members’ culinary and cultural experiences during the planning phase. The generous use of dairy products (in the form of curdled milk, cheese, sour cream and sheep’s curd) is inspired by the home—Transylvania—of our sous chef Edina Makai, while the carp and sterlet on the menu show Szilárd’s commitment to the consumption of Hungarian fish.
Of course, a SALT menu wouldn’t be a real SALT menu if the dishes, from amuse to petit four, weren’t accompanied by an endless variety of wild and medicinal herbs, fermented vegetables and fruits, mostly collected by the kitchen team.
The generous use of spices adds unique flavours to each dish but also reflects on Szilárd and the kitchen team’s approach to cooking: extending the life of an ingredient by preservation and using wild herbs paves the way to sustainability.
As always, the menu is complemented by Máté’s Hungarian and international wine selection and Maya and Lili’s fermented drinks, also made in the spirit of sustainability and zero waste.
