This Anguilla Resort Brings Guests on a Chef-Led Experience to Harvest Their Own Salt

Salt harvesting is a core part of the Caribbean island’s history and identity.

Upon arriving to a five-star resort, like the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Anguilla, it’s hard to imagine stepping foot off the property (until it’s time for your return flight home, of course). If executed well, the entire experience is so intoxicating — with the sights, scents, and service — that the thought of missing out on one second of your trip is almost unfathomable. Yet on Anguilla, as well as other Caribbean islands, there’s so much more to see and do to understand the breadth of the destination’s history, culture, and unique appeal.

Emmanuel Calderon, the executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Anguilla, understands the predicament these two conflicting ideas create, and he’s actively working to ensure guests get a holistic overview of the island with the Taste of Anguilla program. The multi-part excursion connects the resort’s Salt restaurant — where guests can enjoy their meals while overlooking Barnes Bay and Meads Bay — with the eponymous ingredient harvested on the island. “[I’ve] always thought food helps you to appreciate and understand many aspects of a culture, and I wanted to show our guests a little bit of the island and the people who make Anguilla so special,” Calderon told Travel + Leisure.

Salt harvesting in Anguilla has a complex past — one that began with the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s, continued with the labor of enslaved Africans, and came to a halt, for the most part, as the tourism industry started to thrive on the island in the 1980s. For a period of time, Anguilla was one of the world’s top exporters of salt; today, it remains an integral part of the island’s identity, one that guests of the Four Seasons can access with Calderon.

Expect an early morning wake-up call as you make your way out to Road Salt Pond, a 100-plus-acre lagoon in Anguilla’s Sandy Ground district. It’s here where guests — who are warned to come in water shoes and armed with sun protection — receive a salt-picking and history lesson from Anguilla locals. “My favorite part of the experience is when… you arrive at the spot that we have chosen to harvest,” Calderon said. “It’s in this moment when everyone tries to harvest the biggest piece, something locals call ‘salt cake.’”

Gloves are provided as you wade into the waters, feeling the ground for a substantial chunk of salt to pull from the pond. “It becomes a bit competitive and… the reward is really satisfying when you are able to take the biggest slab of salt out of the water,” he said. “You can see the perfect symmetrical pieces and the translucent salt that seems more like a diamond than salt itself.”

As the first part of the experience concludes, Calderon brings guests — who leave with their own bag of salt — to Vinty's Garden, a local vendor that supplies produce to SALT, for a traditional Anguilla breakfast. There’s also the option to continue the day back at the resort, with Calderon demonstrating how to fillet fish and make ceviche, which is seasoned with, you guessed it, local salt.

“Besides lots of salt,” he said, Calderon hopes guests take from the day a more informed perspective on Anguilla. “They will get to experience another part of Anguilla that does not get much attention, develop a deeper connection with the culture, and get to know some of the history of the home of some of the most genuine people and, of course, amazing cooks that I ever worked with.”

While the ponds produce salt through the year, Calderon says the best months for harvesting are the “hottest and dry months” as the “level of the water is low and the salinity of the water is higher.” To embark on the Taste of Anguilla experience, book your trip between the last week of May and the first two weeks of August.

If you can’t wait until then for the turquoise waters, seafood, cushioned lounge chairs, and five-star tranquility of the Four Seasons, that’s OK, too. As far as culinary programs, Calderon and his team continue to evolve the resort’s offerings. “We are currently adding more items to our garden and getting ready for… new and exciting culinary pop-ups celebrating the bounties and the culture of the island,” he said.

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