Note: Parts of this story and all photos have been excerpted with permission from the Campfire Grill NC blog. Click here to read the original blog post.

In 1987, Starr Teel returned to his summer-camp home of Flat Rock, NC to head up the renovation of the Kenmure Clubhouse, where the “cookhouse” (what is now the Grill Room) still stood separate from the main estate. Inspired by ovens he had seen in Italy as well as the historic fireplace still in the house of Dr. King, Teel pursued what has become a characteristic drive of his, to build something that’s never been built before, the first commercial wood-fire oven in North Carolina.

Teel has since gone on to build 5 commercial wood-fire ovens, including that of Camp Falling Creek, Hubba Hubba Smokehouse, and the Flat Rock Village Bakery. His favorite though, the oven that he claims the experience of all the others has led to, is the one that now stands as the heart of Little Rainbow Row’s newest eatery, Campfire Grill.

From: Brick, Flame, & Steel:
The story of building the Campfire Grill oven, 35 years in the making.
The Campfire Grill Blog

Starr Teel traces his fascination with wood-fired ovens to his travels in the Middle East and Europe in the 1980s. Stil in his 20’s, he was working in heavy construction as his primary source of income. But his heart burned with a passion for cooking. And the fire of that passion was fueled with wood. During that time, Starr attended a French Classical cooking school in Paris. His experience in The City of Light, in particular, helped set him on a course that would change his life and ultimately have a profound impact on the culinary scene in a small village in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Starr:
I lived across the street from a bakery for the better part of a year. Poilâne Bakery on Rue du Cherche-Midi. It's literally one of the most famous bakeries in the world. That bakery was no bigger than the Flat Rock Village Bakery, and people just lined up from the crack of dawn and were there still there at seven o'clock at night. The line never, ever went away. And I had a chance to see what could be done with a wood-fired oven.

After six formative years abroad, Starr returned to Flat Rock in the mid-1980s. His parents had recently purchased a home in a new development called Kenmure, and a young Starr pitched the idea of building a wood-fired oven for the Kenmure Clubhouse to developers Lee King and Bill Robinson.

During my travels, I saw that every culture has their version of a wood-fired oven. And then at the same time in America, there was kind of a Renaissance going on for traditional hearth-baked bread. So I asked Lee and Bill what their plan was for their kitchen, and my proposal was built around the idea of capturing this whole wood-fired experience in the Kenmure kitchen. They were generous enough to give me a chance.

With approval in hand, Starr studied an old wood-fired oven in Rutledge Cottage, directly adjacent to the new development, as the model for his very first attempt at building a traditional stone oven.

The hard thing was there wasn't a whole lot of information. And this was pre-internet. So I went down to Dr. Mitchell King's original house (Rutledge Cottage) and there's actually an old masonry beehive oven in that building. I took my first measurements off that oven as the prototype for the Kenmure oven.

Starr Teel in the kitchen of his Campfire Grill restaurant.

Starr describes his first attempt at building the oven as a “medium success” and still regrets following the design of the Rutledge oven too closely and not applying more of what he learned about proper oven dimensions from the Poilâne Bakery in Paris.

I learned that the height of the arch for my Kenmure oven was too high. It worked fine for a lot of things, but from a production standpoint, you need a lower ceiling height, a lower arch height, in your oven in order to maintain your temperature more efficiently. I just wasn't confident enough to reduce the height down to what I remembered from Paris.

From there Starr and his wife at the time, Virginia Spigener, went on to renovate the old Peace’s Grocery and opened The Wrinkled Egg shop. They used some of the space to create what is now the Flat Rock Village Bakery and Starr built his second wood-fired oven for the fledgling business. Not one to ever sit back and rest on his laurels, Starr went on to apply his passion and knowledge to the construction of more wood-fired ovens for Camp Falling Creek and his Hubba Hubba Smokehouse restaurant just behind Rainbow Row in Flat Rock.

Starr attributes this succession of projects to a life long passion for a traditional style of cooking.

I think there's just something primal about the process of cooking with fire. It goes back to cooking in the hearth. And then there’s an art and a craft associated with it that is unique to the entire process. I love the burnt crustiness on the base that is on all of those breads that come off a hearth that is unique to the wood-fire experience.

At Campfire, the oven is located in such a way that you can see it from throughout the restaurant. I believe people have a sense of the home and hearth, and whether they know it or not, it seems to affect people in a positive way. It’s also part of the bigger story of restaurants embracing farm to table, back to nature, and honoring the traditions of cooking. I don't beat that drum like crazy, but I'm well aware that it is important, and it's always been important to me.

Starr working on the oven for Campfire Grill

The Campfire Grill Blog explains the fascinating details of the oven’s construction and the number of experts that collaborated with Starr to create what he considers his best work to date. (Photos of the process are below.) Starr is quick to credit the expert craftsmen and technicians who helped him construct the Campfire oven.

Obviously, when you’ve made enough mistakes going into a new project, you know exactly what mistakes you don't want to make. And even though they (the construction team) had never done this before, they understood exactly what I was trying to do. They're just master builders. I was able to lay the whole thing out with them, and once they understood what was needed, then you had really committed craftsmen helping you achieve the best possible outcome.

Ultimately, cooking with wood fire is clearly more art than science - and a lot more work than cooking with a conventional oven. And that fits the personality and boundless energy of Starr Teal perfectly.

Cooking in a wood-fired oven is absolutely an art. Every day, the wood is always changing. The ambient temperature changes. It matters if it is raining. It's just crazy. It is clearly an art. Which is perfect for me. I'm not very smart. So science always threw me off because science is exact and has answers. But, art? That’s about passion and heart.

His self-deprecating humor aside, Starr Teel has made a career of tackling projects that others would shy away from - while helping to preserve the traditions of cooking with fire along the way. And the primary beneficiaries of his vision and energy have been the residents and visitors lucky enough to sample the results of his commitment to wood-fired ovens.

Building the Campfire Grill Oven

Featured

Henderson County Health Department Letter to Starr, 1987

Please be aware that due to the fact that such an undertaking is the first of its kind in Henderson County and indeed the State of North Carolina, the oven in question shall be considered an experimental operation.

Bricks for Arch

Jet High Duty 3” Bricks make up the arch of the traditional Beehive oven. Our arch is built higher than a traditional pizza oven, making the heat from the fire refract at lower temperatures that sustain our “low & slow“ philosophy for meats. These bricks, as well as the Super High Duty ones that make up the hearth, and the Medium Duty that form our walls, expand and contract in response to temperature changes. This makes particular and thorough insulation a key element to building any oven, particularly this one.

Masonry Work

Rick & Drew Metcalf, our overall master craftsmen father-son duo, laying Super Duty 3” Brick on the hearth and medium-duty brick walls, bound not by masonry cement, but gray refractory high temp mortar which gets stronger under high temperatures.

Rick Metcalf installing ceramic blanket.

Drew Metcalf finishes welding connections of smoker framework.

Starr and Jack Nash

If you ask Starr Teel how he accomplishes what he does, he will inevitably answer, “by surrounding myself with smart, caring, passionate people and asking questions.”

Nash insulated oven doors.

10” triple wall stainless steel flue.

Oven in Operation

The hybrid nature of the Campfire oven makes it unusual, having the flu at the rear rather than the front and building the arch higher than standard not only provides space for racks to smoke fish and meats, but also facilitates bigger fires, the long-burning coals of which are then repurposed to fuel our Santa Maria wood-fire grill.