Saveur de sal
Created out of a shared love of good food and a keen desire to work with dedicated, local growers, Michelle Devereux is responsible for bringing true French flair to Canterbury’s shores with her exotic handcrafted finishing salts.
Achance meeting with an Air New Zealand pilot in the London underground a decade ago set Michelle Devereux’s life in an entirely new direction. ‘I never would have thought I would meet someone in my sixties and move to a totally new country, and yet here I am.’
But having upturned her life in France to move to the other side of the world for love, she found she knew no one and yearned for something to do. ‘No one told me that airline pilots are never home,’ she laughs. ‘I spent a year looking around all the farmers’ markets and I realised there was a gap in the market between what I do and what others do. All of the others use dry and dehydrated ingredients as well as unnecessary items such as rice flour or soy. None of mine has ever been made that way: what is on the labels is what’s in the blend, nothing else. No one here was using fresh ingredients.’
That got Michelle thinking. A self-confessed foodie, Michelle lived in France for more than 20 years, running a successful cottage business making unique blends of ‘finishing salts’ using the delicate, flaky, famed Fleur de sel sea salt. She sold them at Christmas Market Festivals in villages near where she lived.
Translated as ‘flower of the salt’, Fleur de sel is raked by hand from the top of the salt ponds near certain French west coast villages. It’s been referred to as white gold, the caviar of salts and the seventh wonder of the gastronomic world, she explains.
While too much salt is bad for you, people tend to underestimate the importance of salt in a healthy diet, adds Michelle. It plays a vital role in water retention, nerve and muscle function, and is also involved in the regulation of fluids in the body. It’s found in almost everything you eat and drink, and is added to a lot of food during the manufacturing process.
In French restaurants and households though, salt is traditionally used as an accompaniment. They don’t tend to cook with it but instead use ‘finishing salts’ just before serving to transform an ordinary meal into a culinary experience. ‘It’s a completely different way of using the product,’ she says.
Convinced Kiwi cooks would catch on, Michelle launched Saveur de Sel, which is simply translated as ‘a taste of salt’, making her own range of handcrafted organic salt blends.
In the absence of Fleur de sel, she turned to using Marlborough flaky sea salt from Lake Grassmere, which comes from Pacific Ocean seawater that is slowly heated so the salt evaporates and forms crystals, as a base. Although it was vastly different from the bags of dripping wet grey salt Michelle had been accustomed to buying from the coastal villages in France, after some trial and error, she adjusted her recipes to suit.
To start with Michelle focused on retail, setting the business up to sell directly to gourmet food shops and specialised supermarkets, but quickly regretted the whole thing. ‘The salt price was quite high, and because I wanted each customer to have the best experience of my blends I was replacing any stock that hadn’t sold after four months at my own expense.’
Forced to rethink her approach, Michelle pulled her product off the shelves in favour of stalls at farmers’ markets around Canterbury. Straight away, the business started to blossom. Michelle thrived on the upfront contact with people, taking the time to talk to private chefs, caterers and home cooks, allowing her to share her passion and respect for food. ‘You need a good memory and a sense of humour,’ she says. ‘Marketing is so important. You can’t judge people by that first impression. You can’t have any preconceived ideas about who is going to be a foodie. It’s so important to form a bond,
‘Marketing is so important. You can’t judge people by that first impression. You can’t have any preconceived ideas about who is going to be a foodie.’
make contact and engage with people. I absolutely love having that contact with people. I come home from the market really shattered, but the satisfaction is fabulous.’
While tourists that flock to the Christchurch Farmers’ Market are looking for something unusual or quintessentially New Zealand, Michelle has developed a loyal following with many clients returning time and time again. Many even order seasonal varieties in advance. Her salts are posted all over the world. She also produces several exclusive custom blends for local restaurants and chefs.
Initially, she stuck with the tried and true flavours of Smoked Garlic, Citrus Thyme, Bella Roma, Orange Fennel, and Red Wine, but over time she began experimenting with new flavour combinations. In some cases, it takes months to perfect new flavour combinations. Today, she has a range of 12 different salt blends (some are seasonal), made in small batches between 1–5 kg depending on the season and trends.
Michelle aims to introduce one or two new flavours a year. ‘I don’t usually go looking for new flavours, they tend to come to me,’ she says. ‘It’s all about listening to people and seeing what’s around.’ Her latest offering uses wild nettle, which is emerging as a trendy superfood. Kelp/lovage, which uses Akaroa giant kelp seaweed and the little-known herb lovage (closely associated with celery and parsley) has also proved extremely popular.
Each new flavour combination has to be thoroughly tested to ensure its quality can be maintained during the reproduction process, factoring in the season, daylight, temperature and humidity. It’s very different from making salt blends using dry and dehydrated ingredients that are mixed and bagged using machinery, explains Michelle. ‘Because everything is made using only the freshest organic ingredients, they have to be treated very differently. It’s very labour intensive. Everything is layered individually before going through the blending process. The actual quantities of ingredients in each batch are unbelievably high.’To make her Citrus Thyme, for example, it requires the zest of around 35 citrus fruit, all zested by hand!
Her salt blends have a reputation for packing some serious punch; every pinch bringing an explosive flavour, adding
Her salt blends have a reputation for packing some serious punch; every pinch bringing an explosive
flavour, adding a zesty burst to any dish.
a zesty burst to any dish. ‘I try to make them as robust as possible because I don’t want people to have to use too much salt to get a good flavour. Each boasts a wonderful aroma, colour, texture and amazing flavour, where people can see and feel each individual ingredient. They just taste different.’
Through relationships cultivated at the farmers’ market, Michelle has met other fabulous local organic producers that share her passion. She sources all her ingredients locally, but out of those connections, some fruitful partnerships have grown.
Together with Chris and Annette Moore of Robinsons Bay Olive Oil, Michelle’s introduced a range of salted oils, and recently they have teamed up with Wayne and Alison Tewnion of Tewnion Truffière to produce New Zealand’s first all-natural truffle oil. She also makes truffle butter and a truffle salt enhanced with the intoxicating earthy aroma of black truffles.
‘It’s a big moment for us. It’s taken me more than two years of experimenting to come up with a method where I can deal with them both separately and put them together to create pure magic without any chemicals, additives or artificial ingredients. All other truffle oils contain chemicals. Truffles are not something that people are familiar with, so we are having to educate people.’
Long-term, she hopes to see more artisan producers working together. ‘I’ve met so many amazing people. It’s a big dream of mine to get everyone involved. I like the idea that it’s a community thing. Food to me is a language or a conversation. I may be dreaming, but I think it’s worth trying,’ says Michelle.