My love affair with France began in high school when my father let me tag along on a business trip. Armed with my high school French, that trip sparked a life-long passion for France and French culture.
From living there briefly in my 20’s to vacationing and falling in love with Brittany, I’ve always been drawn to everything that France has to offer- especially the amazing cuisine.
Over ten years ago, I visited a food fair in Paris, filled with different vendors where I sampled everything you could imagine including jams and jellies, escargot and salts. I left the fair with a tub of herbed salt and sprinkled it on anything I could eat when I arrived home.
I quickly fell in love with the salts and could never find anything else that quite matched the flavor. During my frequent travels to France, I would seek out the salts from L’Atelier du Sel, try more of their varieties and bring them back home to my friends, family, and colleagues to enjoy. Everyone was impressed with the quality and taste- so much so that one of my friends recommended I import them to the United States. This is how Louis Sel started.
I then approached the salt farmers or paludiers to learn more about their craft and product. On my first trip, I travelled to Guérande in Brittany to spend an entire week with the paludiers, learning all about the region, the salt making process, and the uniqueness of the salts.
What makes our sea salts special? It starts with the origin.
Louis Sel sources from the salt marshes situated in the world famous Guérande basin, just over an hour from Nantes. This is where the paludiers manually and naturally harness nature’s energies to produce this magical sea salt.
This includes the Sel Marin (coarse grey sea salt or sel gris) and the Fleur de Sel (literally “flower of salt”). The salts are completely natural, delicate products created with a unique combination of ancestral know-how and natural elements; the wind, the sun and the ocean. The harvest occurs during the summer season. Our paludiers pride themselves in harvesting the salt following the traditions of the French Terroir Guérandais and the methods of their ancestors.
It all comes out in the unique, subtle and sublime flavor that makes their Sel Marin and Fleur de Sel essential for any kitchen. The best ways to use the salts are also the most simple. For example, sprinkling on scrambled eggs, seasoning a steak, using in a homemade salad dressing or dashing over roasted vegetables.
I knew customers would fall in love with these salts, like I did. Once you start using them in your everyday kitchen routine, nothing else lives up to it.
Louis Sel is fortunate to call top restaurants, chefs and numerous home cooks nationwide fans. We have also been featured in media outlets such as the Boston Globe and Forbes.
But it’s the Francopihle community that has embraced the product the most. I’m honored to both serve on the board for the French American Chamber of Commerce of New England (FACCNE) and be a winner of their Women in Business award as a female entrepreneur.
The French Library’s Annual Marché de Noël is not only one of our busiest events of the holiday season but my most favorite as well. As a Back Bay resident, I love spending the day in the beautiful Marlborough Street location talking to all the attendees who share my passion for France and food. I can’t wait for Louis Sel to join the French Library for another amazing event this year with my fellow French-inspired vendors. See you there!
By Karen Pevenstein, Founder, Louis Sel
From living there briefly in my 20’s to vacationing and falling in love with Brittany, I’ve always been drawn to everything that France has to offer- especially the amazing cuisine.
Over ten years ago, I visited a food fair in Paris, filled with different vendors where I sampled everything you could imagine including jams and jellies, escargot and salts. I left the fair with a tub of herbed salt and sprinkled it on anything I could eat when I arrived home.
I quickly fell in love with the salts and could never find anything else that quite matched the flavor. During my frequent travels to France, I would seek out the salts from L’Atelier du Sel, try more of their varieties and bring them back home to my friends, family, and colleagues to enjoy. Everyone was impressed with the quality and taste- so much so that one of my friends recommended I import them to the United States. This is how Louis Sel started.
I then approached the salt farmers or paludiers to learn more about their craft and product. On my first trip, I travelled to Guérande in Brittany to spend an entire week with the paludiers, learning all about the region, the salt making process, and the uniqueness of the salts.
What makes our sea salts special? It starts with the origin.
Louis Sel sources from the salt marshes situated in the world famous Guérande basin, just over an hour from Nantes. This is where the paludiers manually and naturally harness nature’s energies to produce this magical sea salt.
This includes the Sel Marin (coarse grey sea salt or sel gris) and the Fleur de Sel (literally “flower of salt”). The salts are completely natural, delicate products created with a unique combination of ancestral know-how and natural elements; the wind, the sun and the ocean. The harvest occurs during the summer season. Our paludiers pride themselves in harvesting the salt following the traditions of the French Terroir Guérandais and the methods of their ancestors.
It all comes out in the unique, subtle and sublime flavor that makes their Sel Marin and Fleur de Sel essential for any kitchen. The best ways to use the salts are also the most simple. For example, sprinkling on scrambled eggs, seasoning a steak, using in a homemade salad dressing or dashing over roasted vegetables.
I knew customers would fall in love with these salts, like I did. Once you start using them in your everyday kitchen routine, nothing else lives up to it.
Louis Sel is fortunate to call top restaurants, chefs and numerous home cooks nationwide fans. We have also been featured in media outlets such as the Boston Globe and Forbes.
But it’s the Francopihle community that has embraced the product the most. I’m honored to both serve on the board for the French American Chamber of Commerce of New England (FACCNE) and be a winner of their Women in Business award as a female entrepreneur.
The French Library’s Annual Marché de Noël is not only one of our busiest events of the holiday season but my most favorite as well. As a Back Bay resident, I love spending the day in the beautiful Marlborough Street location talking to all the attendees who share my passion for France and food. I can’t wait for Louis Sel to join the French Library for another amazing event this year with my fellow French-inspired vendors. See you there!
By Karen Pevenstein, Founder, Louis Sel 
