This is the fleur de sel, and because of its delicacy, it must be harvested the same afternoon it's formed. Some fleur de sel containers give the date the salt was harvested, and the name of the harvester. Obviously, this is an expensive salt, and is used sparingly by those chefs who indulge in it. Sel gris is used for cooking, but the fleur, chefs say, should be used only as a finishing touch, just before food goes to the table. At some restaurants, this precious commodity is placed on the table, though hardly in a shaker.
Diners use the salt cellar's tiny spoon to sprinkle the sparkling crystals onto their food.
Although other sea salts aren't as costly as the fleur, they still are considerably more than standard iodized salt. That compares to the 40 cents a pound he pays for kosher salt and 32 cents a pound for iodized salt. Fleur de sel, though, is more apt to be doled out in pinches, measured in grains instead of tablespoons. Weselby learned about the hand-harvested salts while growing up in England, and traveling in France, where he saw the harvesting process. But he was really converted, he says, after a salt tasting a few years ago in New York.