ABOUT SALT & WIND
Hello, Ciao, Hola, Grüezi, Aloha, Salut!
Salt & Wind is a travel and food publication offering deeply researched destination guides and professionally tested recipes, bringing insider knowledge from luxury travel planning experts to curious travelers and home cooks alike.
Salt & Wind is also the editorial home of Salt & Wind Travel, where our team applies this same expertise to bespoke luxury travel planning for clients who want hands-on support turning inspiration into unforgettable trips.
Founded in 2014, Salt & Wind grew out of a simple request from readers and viewers: where to travel for great food. After years of hosting food-focused travel shows and publishing recipes professionally tested, our founder, Aida Mollenkamp, began sharing the destinations, dishes, and cultural experiences that shaped her work. What started as an editorial project soon became a trusted resource for food lovers seeking deeper, more meaningful travel.
For more than a decade, we’ve been on a mission to help travelers explore the world’s most compelling culinary destinations. Our work is grounded in firsthand experience, such as annual research trips, repeat visits, and time spent living and working in the places we cover, including California, France, Hawai‘i, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Switzerland.
As lifelong food and travel lovers, we believe the best trips move beyond checklists. Here, you’ll find thoughtful guidance for slow, food-first travel, along with nearly 600 professionally developed, rigorously tested recipes inspired by the places we know best.
About Salt & Wind Travel
Salt & Wind operates at the intersection of editorial expertise and bespoke travel planning. While our editorial work and travel services are closely connected, they serve distinct purposes.
On the editorial side, we publish travel and food content grounded in firsthand experience. Our destination guides reflect repeat visits, deep local relationships, and ongoing research, while our recipes are informed by professional culinary standards and real-world testing.
On the travel services side, the Salt & Wind Travel team applies that same expertise to custom itinerary design for clients who want hands-on support. The destinations, experiences, and cultural insights we explore editorially are often the same ones we refine and execute through our luxury travel planning work.
This dual approach allows us to research destinations deeply, maintain trusted local partnerships, and continuously update our recommendations, whether we’re publishing a guide, testing a recipe, or designing a trip.
Where to Start
If you’re new here, start with the content our readers return to again and again:
- Travel Guides – In-depth guides to destinations we know intimately
- Top Recipes – Five-star, professionally tested recipes inspired by our travels
- Free Bucket Lists – Get top tips created by our expert travel planners
- Newsletter – Travel and food inspiration delivered to your inbox weekly
Editorial Standards
All Salt & Wind content is created by our internal team of travel planners, culinary professionals, and destination experts. Every article is informed by firsthand experience—through on-the-ground research trips, professional travel planning work, or time spent living in the destinations we cover.
Our recipes are developed and tested to professional editorial standards. Each recipe is typically tested three to five times by Aida Mollenkamp, who previously ran the professional test kitchen at CHOW magazine. This process ensures clarity, consistency, and reliability in real home kitchens.
While we occasionally collaborate with organizations such as California Grown to highlight local agriculture in our home state, our editorial recommendations are driven by experience, integrity, and usefulness—not sponsorships or trends.
Meet the Team Behind Salt & Wind
Aida Mollenkamp
Founder, Editor, and Italy, France, California, and Hawai’i Travel Planner
Aida Mollenkamp is a food and travel expert, cookbook author, trained chef, and media personality whose career spans hospitality, food media, and culinary travel. She is the founder of Salt & Wind and the travel agency Salt & Wind Travel.
Aida studied hospitality at the Cornell Hotel School and culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, then served as Food Editor at CHOW magazine (now Chowhound), where she ran the professional test kitchen. She later hosted multiple food-focused television series, including Ask Aida on the Food Network, FoodCrafters on the Cooking Channel, and Off Menu on Tastemade.
Her cookbook, Keys to the Kitchen, is a trusted resource for home cooks, and her work reflects decades of experience translating global food cultures into accessible guidance. Aida has lived across California, France, and Italy, worked and traveled extensively in Hawaii, Mexico, and Switzerland, speaks four languages, and holds a WSET Level 2 certification in wine.
Kristen Kellogg
Partner and California, Italy, and Switzerland Travel Planner
Kristen Kellogg is a partner at Salt & Wind Travel and a seasoned travel expert with a background in filmmaking, digital storytelling, and hospitality. She has created content and experiences for premier travel brands, including HotelTonight, Rosetta Stone, Visit California, the Swiss Tourism Board, and Visit Los Cabos.
Kristen’s experience spans high-end hospitality, food and beverage operations, and adventure travel. She has lived in California and Mexico, and has traveled extensively throughout Hawai‘i, Italy, France, and Switzerland, bringing a sustainability-minded, outdoor-forward perspective to both editorial content and itinerary design.
The Ligurian Riviera is a place she fell in love with, and she is constantly sending clients there who haven’t heard of the small towns, and they come back wanting to return season after season. She loves visiting some of the smaller, lesser-known wine regions like the Santa Ynez Valley or Switzerland’s underrated town of Andermatt.
She is also a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and is completing advanced training in functional medicine, allowing her to help travelers design trips that balance discovery, wellness, and rest. Kristen splits her time between the United States and Todos Santos, Mexico.
Rachel Vermiglio Smith
Italy and France Contributor and Travel Planner
Rachel Vermiglio Smith is an expert on France and Italy who lived in Italy for more than a decade. She holds a BA in Italian Renaissance Art from Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Italy, a BA in Italian Language and Literature, and a Master’s in Art History from Arizona State University.
She specializes in Italian culture, food, and travel logistics, with particular insight into long stays, family travel, and everyday life in Italy. She has traveled extensively through France and Switzerland and shares her experiences in her writing.
Rachel’s work reflects nearly a decade of on-the-ground experience, from neighborhood trattorias to regional traditions, making her a trusted voice for travelers seeking a deeper understanding of Italy beyond the highlights. Follow Rachel on social media at The Italianista.
Regular Editorial Contributors
Ligaya Malones
Hawai‘i, Mexico & California Contributor
Ligaya Malones is a food and travel writer raised on the island of Kaua‘i and now based in San Diego. Her work has appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Food52, Lonely Planet, and other leading publications.
At Salt & Wind, Ligaya covers Hawai‘i, Mexico, and California, bringing cultural nuance, local insight, and a strong understanding of evolving food and travel trends—particularly in places she knows firsthand.
Nora Poulard
France Wine & Food Contributor
Nora Poulard is the founder of Odyssée, an initiative that translates her extensive international background into bespoke culinary journeys.
Nora Poulard brings deep international experience in wine, food, and hospitality to her editorial work at Salt & Wind. She has lived throughout France and worked across major wine regions in France, Spain, Mexico, and the United States, including Paso Robles.
With formal training in wine and spirits, wine marketing, and communication, Nora contributes stories rooted in terroir, producers, and regional traditions. Now based in Hyères, she offers readers a nuanced perspective on French wine and food culture, particularly along the Mediterranean coast.
Who This Site Is For
Salt & Wind is written for food-curious, culture-driven travelers who value local traditions, thoughtful pacing, and meaningful experiences. Our guides are designed for readers who want to understand why a place is special—not just what to see—and who believe food is one of the most powerful ways to connect with culture.
As a women-owned small business, we aim to support fellow independent small businesses. And, while doing so, we work to promote sustainable food and travel, support small businesses, and help preserve cultural individuality.
If you’re looking for fast checklists or bargain travel hacks, this may not be the right fit. If you want deeper context, trusted recommendations, and inspiration rooted in real experience, you’re in the right place.
Contribute To Salt & Wind Travel
The online magazine Salt & Wind is built for and by a community of food and travel lovers. We’re always on the lookout for exceptional photographers, writers, and recipe developers. To pitch us, please reach out at edit [at] salt and wind [dot] com.
Press & Media
The Salt & Wind Travel team has been featured in various media outlets, ranging from television to magazines, including Brides, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic, New York Times, Shape, Sunset Magazine, TripSavvy, Well + Good, and Yahoo. If you want to learn more, email us at travel [at] saltandwind [dot] com
Disclosure
The information presented on Salt & Wind Travel is for general information purposes only. While we attempt to keep information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability concerning any of the information, products, or services contained on the website for any purpose.