The Reason Some Fancy Restaurants Don't Have Salt And Pepper Shakers
If you're dining out at a fancy restaurant, you might notice that there's no salt and pepper on the table. Though this might seem strange at first, it's actually not a mistake. While you'll usually encounter ample seasoning and sauce options at your local diner, most fine dining establishments won't provide them. That's because though seasoning food at home may be the norm, the bottom line is that in restaurants — where your dishes and entrees are made to order — the chef will take care in seasoning your food properly.
For professional chefs, learning how to season a dish during every step of preparation is part of their training, so by the time you get your meal, it's ready for you to dig in. If you reach for the salt and pepper right away, you could accidentally over-season your food just by force of habit — ruining all of the chef's hard work in one fell swoop.
The chef has intended a certain level of seasoning
For many people, seasoning food before tasting it is a knee-jerk reaction. Perhaps your parents didn't season your food growing up. Or maybe there wasn't a lot of culinary knowledge in the home. If you grew up needing to add salt and pepper to your meal, it's almost a muscle memory response to grab the salt and pepper shakers as soon as your plate hits the table. However, since the chef at the restaurant you're dining at knows how to properly season your meal, you could accidentally ruin it before you've even tasted it.
With that said, everyone's personal tastes are different, so if you really do require a bit of extra salt on your meal, do the chef and kitchen staff the courtesy of at least tasting it before asking for salt and pepper. Having a few bites will give your palate time to really taste the flavor of the dish. This also gives you time to discern if you need additional salt and pepper or not, or if you're just in the habit of adding it. The last thing a busy kitchen wants is for a patron to complain that their meal is too salty because they themselves added too much salt.
The proper way to ask for salt and pepper if needed
If you absolutely must have extra salt on your food, you'll want to ask as politely as possible. Chefs take great care to ensure that the meals they send out are properly seasoned, so do your best to be kind with your request. If you're traveling abroad, check local customs on asking for seasoning in restaurants. In some countries, this is considered to be very offensive.
In the U.S., there's nothing wrong with informing your server that you tend to like a little extra seasoning on your food and asking if they have some finishing salt for the dish. Asking politely will let the server know what you need and they'll appreciate the respectful gesture. What you don't want to do is tell the server that the food is bland, or doesn't taste very good. Of course, do speak up if your dish is not prepared properly, especially where temperature is concerned.