Asheville – People have been cooking over wood fires since, well, since there was fire. There’s nothing quite like the flavor of food cooked over a live fire, but it’s when 23 of Asheville’s acclaimed chefs get together to showcase their preparation of heritage meats and vegetables over open wood fires. That’s what happened on Sunday, July 17th, when the first ever Heritage Fire cook-off was held at Franny’s Farm in Leicester, NC. A ticket to the event included unlimited food, beer, wine, and cocktails, and lots of fun.
Franny’s Farm is a beautiful farm just off of South Turkey Creek Road. It was a festive atmosphere with music, tents, venders, and the smell of cooking saturating the air. Outside the main tent, there was a “protein kitchen” for all of the chefs, with sausages draped on racks, huge paella pans simmering, and a variety of meat proteins cooking over, or in, wood fires.
What is Heritage Fire?
The event started 10 years ago as the Cochon555 series, which was all about celebrating heritage breed pigs. They were high end events held in ballrooms in the largest cities. Brett Friedman, CEO and founder of Agency 21, the creators of Heritage Fire, acquired the event in 2017, and decided to evolve the brand. “That is what Heritage Fire is,” said Friedman. “It’s not just one protein, it’s basically any protein. It’s fish, lamb, traditional cow protein, pigs, it’s to celebrate the entire gamut of the protein world, and it’s specifically about heritage breed proteins. But it’s also about heritage vegetables from local farms.” Friedman stated, “We’re adding more and more vegetarian options. Not only is it consistent with heritage and farming practices, which is what the whole point of this is, but it’s because the world is changing. There is a huge segment that loves their proteins, and we want to encourage that in the live fire events, but there’s a huge segment that is moving in this vegetarian and vegan direction and we don’t want to alienate them. Not to mention, farm to table vegetables over open fire is damn good, so why not have both?”
What is Heritage Breed?
Shannon Ruben, Manger of Culinary Operations for Agency 21 explained, “Heritage Breed is about how it’s raised or grown. It’s not a commodity, which is a typical meat protein that you see at the grocery store. Heritage breed animals are specifically grown, taken care of, pasture raised, no crazy stuff in their systems. With all the animals with heritage it’s with pure love and specific care of each individual animal. The veggies too are grown in a very specific kind of soil. There are no pesticides or growth hormones.”
“It’s all about getting back to the local farmers,” Friedman added, “That is truly something that is important to us. It’s the reason we do this. The industrialization of food is everything we are trying to move away from, and I think society is moving in that direction as well. The number one message we’re giving is about supporting sustainability in the local farms, but also that it’s not just meat proteins, it’s fish and vegetables. That is super important to me.
This whole thing started because the farmers didn’t know how to get to the chefs with their heritage breed proteins, and the chefs didn’t know how to get to the farmers.” Ruben continued. “Now, even though we allow the chefs to pick their own farms, they get to work with other people they’ve never worked with before as well. That’s the best part about it; supporting the smallest of local farms to the largest, and working with these farmers that may only raise a couple of hogs, or different types of animals, or even just have onions. If we can help just one farmer in each city, I feel like my job is done. In Asheville, we’re working with fifteen to twenty farms for this event. Friedman added, “Mostly what these events are about is getting out there and having fun. It’s the music. We’ve got wine, five local craft beers, and two whiskey partners, there is something for everyone. There’s even an ax-throwing area.

Asheville Proper’s Chef McGlynn
Owen McGlynn and his wife Mindi, co-owners of Asheville Proper, took a few minutes to talk with us. “It’s fun to do this. It’s like a step away, low key, low stress, like inviting all of your friends to a party, but there are other chefs, so you’re not doing all of the cooking.”
Before opening Asheville Proper, McGlynn was with High Cotton in Charleston, and later opened the High Cotton restaurant in Greenville, SC.
When asked why live fire cooking, McGlynn said, “I’ve been thinking about this for about five years. Growing up, we did a lot of camping, so we did a lot of things over fire. It’s kind of nostalgic.” Asheville Proper uses an eight-foot wood-burning grill. “We try to utilize it in every dish at some point, charring, smoking, something burnt, there’s an aspect of that in every dish.”
“We are an unconventional steakhouse. We’re not only a steakhouse, we have vegetarian and vegan options as well, but we are based around steak and seafood. We dry age in-house. We do tallow aging, where we dip a whole ribeye in tallow and age that for 100 days or so. We’re just having fun with it.”
The fun paid off as McGlynn was selected as the crowd favorite for his taste of NY Strip with an heirloom tomato chimichuri.
Rhubarb CDC and the Asheville Food Scene
Glen Osterberg, Chef De Cuisine of Rhubarb, shared his love of food and cooking with wood. “Rhubarb has a wood-burning oven and grill, and we make two fires every day. Everything is kissed by the smoke or the heat, and rhubarb finds its way into some dishes where it’s the showpiece, and others where it just gives that nice gentle acidity.”
Osterberg spent 7 years in New York City working for all the big houses there, but he loves the Asheville food scene. “In New York they love their proteins, but what lacked there was respect for vegetables,” said Osterberg. “I love working with small farms. What they have is what you have to cook with, so you don’t get to plan the menu, the vegetables do. It’s nice to see that this community respects that. Everything at Rhubarb is farm to table, everything is from here. The meat is from here, the rice is from a local farm, the vegetables are from here, even the mushrooms are found in the woods around here. Nothing is from anywhere outside of Asheville.”
Other chefs and cooks that participated include Eric Morris–Cultura, Graham House–Chop Shop, Nick Hane–Zambra, Steven Goff–Tastee Diner, Michelle Bailey–Smoky Park Supper Club, Terri Terrell–The clarksdale, Matt Weinstein–Oak Steakhouse at Skyline Lodge, Luis Martinez–Tequio Foods, Daniel Wheeler–Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute, Lynn Wells–Thyme Well Spent Personal Chef Service, Cleophus Hethington–Triangular Traded Spaces, Michael Achberger–Table, Bert Sheffield–White Labs Brewing Co, Brian Crow–Chestnut, Michael Lewis–Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse, Luke Owens–Julep Contemporary Kitchen, Neomi Negron–Buggy Pops, Santiago Vargas–Mikasa AVL, Elizabeth Rideout–Sea of Sweets Bakery, and Jill Wasilewski–Sea of Sweets Ivory Road Cafe & Kitchen.
“Asheville is perfect for an event like this.”
Although Ruben was at first hesitant about doing an event in Asheville, she soon realized it was the perfect place. “This is easier to do in Asheville because you’ve got the farms, you’ve got the sustainability,” said Ruben. “After reaching out to a couple of local chefs that I knew, I started getting phone calls from all these other chefs. Everybody here was so supportive. Next thing I knew, we had twenty-three chefs, a wood guy, and anything else we needed. It was amazing. We’re thrilled to be here!”
Heritage Fire is doing eighteen events across the country in 2023, and also adding London and Paris. Friedman plans to make this an annual event in Asheville, so if you want to check it out, go to heritagefiretour.com and bring an appitite. You’ll need it.