Free Healthy Place to Die by Peter King Page B

the body craves more salt, the demand grows for saltier foods, such as prosciutto, cheese, olives, potato chips, dried beef, canned fish, frankfurters, canned soups—”
    “Aren’t there other preservatives besides salt?” someone chipped in.
    Caroline’s imperious finger swung to Leighton Vance. “Certainly,” he said. “First, though, I must emphasize that life as we know it could not exist without preservatives. We would have to go back to the Stone Age. Chemical preservatives are by far the cheapest kind—”
    “—and salt is the cheapest of all,” contributed Helmut.
    As the finger swiveled in my direction, I was ready. “Other methods include heating, chilling, freezing, fermentation, pickling, smoking … Irradiation may turn out to be the most efficient, but there is customer resistance to any link between food and nuclear radiation, and even the best PR people haven’t solved that problem yet.”
    “Perhaps we should get back to the original question,” said Caroline smartly. “It really asked, How can the chef avoid salt?”
    The discussion flowed. Use more pepper, use paprika, use lemon juice, use mustard or fresh basil or thyme—all were proposed. The final word came from Oriana Frascati. “If you must use salt, make it kosher salt—it’s the purest and the only one free of objectionable chemicals.”
    A question came on a different subject. “I’m redesigning my kitchen at home. I do a lot of entertaining, so what are the most important points to bear in mind?”
    Axel Vorstahl was first to tackle that one. He had worked with kitchen designers on land as well as on cruise ships, he said. Modifying this experience for a personal kitchen, he made the following suggestions: have lots of open shelving and glass-fronted cupboards; have a refrigerator under the counter and put a freezer in the pantry; treat all countertops with polyurethane for the best resistance to bacteria; capture as much natural light as you can and have halogen lighting tracks to augment it; have heat and water close together by having a faucet adjacent to the cooktop.
    “What do you think about uncooked food?” was another query. “Some health clinics prescribe raw foods for better health.”
    All four of us commented on this. Helmut Helberg pointed out that cooking actually increases the nutritional content of several vegetables, including carrots and tomatoes. That steaming is always better than boiling was universally agreed.
    “We’re getting bored with French cooking, Italian cooking, Chinese food …,” called a voice. “When are we going to get something new, something different?”
    There was a pause, and Caroline looked at us all in turn before I ventured an answer. “What about Russian cooking? It has a lot of potential that hasn’t yet been tapped in the West. Maybe it will be next.” Some discussion followed, but no one had any better ideas. Indonesian and Philippine cooking were mentioned, but many thought them only variations on Chinese.
    More inquiries flowed, with Helberg, Frascati, and Thompson contributing as much as those of us on the panel. Vance had the least to say. He seemed to have something on his mind. When we finally broke up, a man of the audience wanted to pursue points with selected panelists, and our “short” session became as long as the others.
    When I finally left the conference room, I looked for a blond staff girl—any of them. The first one I encountered was Helga, according to her name badge. “Is Celia still on duty?” I asked.
    “I think she’s still on mud bath duty,” she responded with a smile.
    I went there with a cautious tread, but it appeared safe as half a dozen people were lolling in the thick brown mud and others were coming in. Celia was there and greeted me with a smile.
    “I was in the mud bath earlier today,” I told her.
    “Oh yes, of course. I remember.” She looked at my stern expression. “Is something wrong?”
    “Yes, I almost