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Photo courtesy of Allswell
Photo courtesy of Allswell
Photo courtesy of Allswell
Photo by Jamie Feldmar
Seared Scallops & Farro with Allswell Chef Nate Smith
Nate Smith is running late. I’m hovering near the bathroom at his gastropub Allswell on a weekday morning in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, while Smith plans the day’s menu. The corner isn’t the worst place to wait — it’s outfitted with natural wood and patterned Wes Anderson-lite wallpaper. But I should have seen it coming. In a restaurant where the offerings change near-daily, menu meetings take top priority.
When Smith arrives a few minutes later, he shakes my hand warmly, apologizes, and ushers me into Allswell’s tiny kitchen. The former Spotted Pig chef had planned to show me how to make one the restaurant’s signature dishes, but it quickly became clear that in a restaurant as seasonally-driven as Allswell, few things stick around long enough to be called signatures. “We’ve been doing this great farro salad with cherry tomatoes and corn for a few weeks,” Smith said, “but we just ran out of corn, so I’m going to make it with chanterelles and dandelion greens instead.” How long had he been developing the replacement? “I came up with it about ten minutes ago,” he grinned. “This is the first time I’m making it.”
Smith’s flexible approach stems, in part, from the way he shops. He orders most of the Bedford Avenue restaurant’s produce from a Pennsylvania farmer’s co-op, where Smith picks and chooses from a rotating supply of fresh goods. “I think the season usually exposes ingredients that go naturally well together,” he explains. “Things that don’t happen at the same time are usually a miss.” The scallops he’s sautéing to crown the farro come from Gabrielle Stommel, or “Gabe the Fish Babe,” a young Rhode Island fishmonger who sells the day’s haul from a handful of family-run boats. The mushrooms are foraged by the wild food specialists at Foraged & Found. “We don’t buy in bulk, and we don’t stockpile. We just buy what’s fresh,” says Smith.
Part of the challenge that comes with buying fresh and local means being flexible: small farms are subject to weather, pests, or a slew of other unforeseeable issues that could mean last week’s plums were perfect, while this week’s are bruised and misshapen. You have to know how to serve them. “Sometimes you showcase them in a salad, and sometimes you just mash ‘em up and make a pie,” Smith shrugs. “As chefs, I think it’s important to really use your mind. Critique yourself and figure out how you can make something better.”
As we’re talking, Smith is cooking. He broils thimble-sized cherry tomatoes in olive oil and salt until they burst, then uses their sweet juice to help season the nutty farro. The chanterelles are braised in butter and a glug of fish stock to help accent the flavor of the scallops. Smith folds raw dandelion greens into the warm grains, allowing them to wilt just so, explaining that the leaves are “so pretty I’d hate to cook them down right now.” The ingredients are pristine: there’s no murky sauce to cover a subpar chanterelle, no saltbomb to erase a watery tomato. Smith garnishes the whole thing with torn mint leaves, which provide a lovely and unexpected lightness to the autumnal flavors.
It’s not necessarily comfort food — “I don’t want customers to leave feeling overly heavy and full, I want them to feel energized,” Smith says — but it is comforting to eat, in an environment that matches Smith’s philosophy and personality. “Everything at Allswell reflects who I am and why I cook. It’s not to be a showy chef, it’s to make food I find sustainable — something I can live on and feed my friends and family,” he says. And with that, Smith takes his leave, no doubt to tinker with the menu once more.
Recipe: Seared Scallops with Chanterelles, Farro, & Tomato
Chef Nate Smith, Allswell
- ½ cup olive oil
- 3 sea scallops, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 cup farro
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup chanterelle mushrooms
- 3-5 dandelion leaves, cut into one-inch pieces
- 1 pinch each chopped thyme and sage
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- ¼ cup fish stock
- 1 knob butter
- 3-5 fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped
- salt and pepper
- ½ lemon
Place farro in stockpot and add water to cover plus one inch. Stir in 1 tbsp salt and boil until tender, about 35-45 min.
While the farro is cooking, arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt, then broil under high heat until they burst, 12-15 min.
In 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, sweat the mushrooms until they start to release some liquid, 3-5 min. Add the chopped garlic and herbs and cook for another 2-3 min. Add stock and butter and cook until tender, 5-10 min.
Over medium-high heat, sear the scallops, flipping once, in 1-2 tbsp olive oil for 1-2 min per side.
Assemble the farro: Drizzle warm farro with 1-2 tbsp olive oil, then gently mix in the tomatoes, mushrooms, dandelion greens and mint. Top with the seared scallops and garnish a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
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