In Conversation with Bruce Salt

I’ve know Bruce Salt ever since I moved to Leeds 10 years ago, in fact he was one of the first people I met when I arrived. Back then he was crunching numbers by day but cooking, talking and eating food by night. His passion for food meant lots of meals enjoyed together and many a memorable Christmas dinner consumed at the Salt residence.

I caught up with Bruce to ask him some questions about himself and Salt’s in the run up to his second shop opening in The Light.

MT: What do Salt’s do?

We are a delicatessen, we sell cheeses, olives, wine, chocolates and loads of fancy pants provisions. What makes our stuff special is that we make all our fresh produce at our kitchen in Armley everyday.

Our first shop on Swinegate is right in the office area of the city, so the main thrust of our trade is feeding the workers at breakfast and lunch with our homemade goods.

A substantial part of Salt’s is our business catering – which is still growing despite everything that is going on in the world. I am really proud of the progress this has made, which is down to hard work, great staff and a great product if you don’t mind a bit of trumpet blowing.

Coming up is the Christmas rush. We do really well with our standard or tailor made hampers. People come back year on year for them and a significant number of businesses take them for their staff or customers.

MT: So tell Culture Vulture readers how Salt’s came about.

Salt’s Delicatessen started in 2005. I’ve always had a passion for great food and was disenchanted with my career as a tax adviser. I moaned so much, I just had to do something about it. I had a bright idea that Leeds was missing a decent delicatessen – so here we are.

I just love the way that there is great food everywhere in Spain and the style and feel of something in Madrid was my inspiration.

Hope you like what we have created.

MT: What’s your typical day like?

Not the romantic vision you may perhaps have of pottering around sampling olives and cheeses unfortunately – far from it. It varies from day to day. Having your own business is all-consuming and I end up making the major decisions (to take on our new shop in The Light for example) or looking at minor stuff like where to get the right till rolls or coffee machine cleaner etc. The admin takes up loads of time – far too much and I’ll hopefully be looking for someone to take that off my hands soon. We also do farmers’ markets twice a month in Headingley and Oakwood – I do these with my wife Caroline.

MT: I know you get quite a few ‘celebs’ in the shop, can you reveal any interesting tidbits?

Geoffrey Boycott likes pork pies and crème brulee and you can’t shut him up – but that’s hardly a revelation. We get quite a few Emmerdale stars in, as well as the likes of that bloke from the BT advert or The Beautiful South – I guess the biggest “stars” in the Swinegate shop so far have been The Arctic Monkeys – but I missed them and a page 3 girlfriend.

MT: What’s been your proudest day as the owner of Salt’s?

This is something I never think about – but occasionally someone points out that it’s a lovely little business. That’s really nice.

MT: Are there any products you consider to be hidden gems in the shop that you could tell our readers about …

We’ve got some of the best shelf products you can find in Britain – seriously. Rococo Chocolates, Monmouth Coffee, England Preserves to name just a few.

MT: How do you resist eating everything in sight?

I don’t.

MT:What’s you’re favourite Salt’s product?

We get so many compliments about our crème brulees. They are delicious – yes. I passed my lifetime’s quota back in 2007 but still keep going.

MT:What do you enjoy most about running Salt’s?

The challenge of making an independent business into a resounding success.

MT:What don’t you enjoy at all about running Salt’s?

Things like ludicrous business rates, bank costs, the lack of payroll tax breaks, officious council staff trying slap a parking ticket on the van every time you get out to make a delivery are some of the things that get me going – but I’m pretty resilient and positive so we plough on….

MT:What do you do to relax away from work – apart from drinking beer with us!

Reading, running (I need to do more), spending time with my lovely wife Caroline, anything cricket related and consuming vast quantities of real ale (old man’s beer as Caroline calls it).

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Salt’s new shop opened on Tuesday in The Light (opposite the entrance to The Radisson). The new shop runs alongside their existing shop on Swinegate.

You can find out more about Salt’s on their website or follow them on twitter @saltsdeli.