When Nigella Lawson gave a rare public insight into her between-the-sheet activities recently it’s fair to say the audience were expecting some tidbits of the romantic kind, rather than the culinary.

Speaking at the Sydney Opera House during a tour of Australia, the Nigelissima author shared her affection for eating in bed and her penchant for having an emergency stash of condiments by her bedside including a pinch of Essex’s most famous salt.

“I have learned to keep condiments by the side of my bed.

“Maldon salt, English mustard, Tabasco, a thicker Chilli sauce, and soy sauce,” she said.

The 56-year-old celebrity chef is not the only famous face to publically laud their love for Essex’s famous salt company.

Hollywood actresses Gwyneth Paltrow regularly uses the condiment in her recipes for her Gloop website and even featured her Almond Butter Cookies with Maldon Salt recipe in her 2013 book It’s All Good.

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Cameron Diaz has also admitted she carries the condiment in a recent interview with glossy magazine, Cosmopolitan, answering “Maldon Salt” to the question ‘what’s the weirdest thing you’ve got in your handbag right now?”

Chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater, Nick Nairn and Delia Smith who describes Maldon Salt as “An absolute pure salt that tastes of the sea”

have long since been fans of the company’s products which as well as sea salt flakes includes black peppercorns and smoked salt but now it seems Maldon’s reach has stretched all the way to Tinseltown.

The Maldon Salt Company has been producing salt in Essex since 1882 and within a few years of being established it was being sold on the shelves in top notch venues such as Harrods and Fortnum and Masons.

An early feedback form from Harrods shows even then people realised there was something special about the product, stating: “We found the salt pickling beef, a much smaller quantity being required for brine.

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Also gives the beef a much better flavour.” Signed, Harrods.

Maldon is ideal for salt production as flat tide marshes and low rainfall means high salinity.

The company started off with three salt pans and now has 19. But some things have stayed the same. The business is still very much a family affair, run and owned and run by the Osborne’s who have been making salt at Maldon for four generations.

So how do you even make salt?

The process is kept as natural as possible. First the seawater is filtered and boiled which, removes any impurities and then heated until the salt crystallises.

This is a skilled art as temperature and timing and in particular must be spot on.