Salt Traders

About Salt Traders – Your Source & Guide to a World of Fine Taste

Salt Traders began with a fascination for specialty salts. Founders Rob Seideman and Kelly Hall owned the Cooking School of Aspen, which they opened in 1998. Their interest and education in the subject of specialty salts grew and they began offering a variety of salts and peppercorns at their school. Eventually, they focused all their energy on Salt Traders, educating chefs and the public on the benefits and vast array of sea salts available around the world. Rob and Kelly were central to the emergence of sea salt as a popular condiment and introduced it to home and restaurant kitchens across the country.

About Chef Didi Davis

Didi Davis is a chef, food writer, teacher, and editor. She began her training in 1972 with world-renowned chef, cooking teacher, and food writer Madeleine Kamman. Didi worked for Ms. Kamman for ten years teaching in her non-professional and professional cooking school, working at and managing her restaurant Chez La Mere Madeleine in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and later, working at her cooking school in Annecy, France.

In 1982 Didi and her business partner Linda Marino opened their own cooking school, Cooking at The French Library, in Boston, Massachusetts. Their school was given a Best of Boston award by Boston Magazine, 1982, and featured in Bon Appetit magazine. While operating the school, Didi’s desire to write unfolded and she began writing for several food magazines and newspapers. The school was eventually closed so Linda could pursue catering and Didi could expand her writing. Didi’s food writing evolved into writing cookbooks. She authored A Fresh Look at Saucing Foods, which was nominated for an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Award, and Side Dishes Creative and Simple.

In addition to her own books, Didi became known as a chef with the knowledge and expertise to refine and create recipes. She began a side business of recipe development, testing, and editing for several important cookbooks. Among them are the 1997 revision of Joy of Cooking and the award-winning Zuni Cafe Cookbook, authored by Judy Rogers. Most recently, Didi worked on Molly Stevens’ All About Braising which won the IACP and the James Beard Foundation awards for best Single Subject cookbook published in 2004.

After several years of freelance work and raising her son, Didi found that she missed teaching. She opened The Payne Street Cooking School in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 2003. This led her to search for fine, artisanal ingredients for her students to use. On a 2004 trip to Paris, she discovered flavored salt and began creating her own for use in her cooking classes. She then started didi davis food, llc, to offer her proprietary salt blends, sugar blends, and speciatly food products for sale. In 2008, Didi acquired Salt Traders to expand her collection of artisanal and specialty food products.