About Sally
Sally Scallop grew up on Nantucket watching her grandmother prepare the day's catch for fishermen at the family boarding house. Her mother catered every wedding on the island for thirty years—Sally was shucking oysters before she could ride a bike.
She trained at culinary school in Boston but came home because, as she puts it, "no city has ingredients like these." After working at several island restaurants, she became a private chef and food writer, specializing in the kind of cooking that lets Nantucket's remarkable ingredients shine.
Her Philosophy
Sally believes the best recipes start at the source. Know your fisherman. Know your farmer. Understand what makes a Nantucket bay scallop different from anything you'll find on the mainland (it's the cold, clean water and the eelgrass beds, in case you're wondering).
Island cooking, in Sally's view, is about simplicity that lets ingredients shine. You don't need twenty components when you have a striped bass that was swimming past Brant Point this morning. You need salt, heat, and respect.
"The secret isn't the recipe—it's the scallop you pulled from Madaket Harbor yesterday."
What She Teaches
Sally's recipes are practical and approachable, designed for home cooks—even those working in rental kitchens with dull knives and uncertain spice racks. She explains the "why" behind techniques, shares sourcing tips that only a local would know, and celebrates island traditions while welcoming newcomers to the table.
Her goal: help visitors cook like locals, whether they're searing scallops for a special dinner or making a beach picnic worthy of the view.
From Her Kitchen
"My grandmother would say: if you can taste the ocean, you've done something right. If all you taste is butter, you've used too much butter. There's no such thing as too much butter, of course, but you understand the point."
"If you can get to Bartlett's Farm before 9am, you'll have your pick of the tomatoes. After 9am, you'll have everyone else's rejects. This is true of most good things on Nantucket."
"This is how the fishermen's wives did it, and they knew what they were doing. They had to—there was no takeout, and their husbands were hungry."
