Cook Like A Chef Over The Open Fire With Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

The story of Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking reads like a romantic comedy screenplay with the happily ever after ending set in the most unlikely of places: Sand Mountain, Ga. Throw together a British chef, an American journalist, a worldwide pandemic, the great outdoors, and a small town, and your film is ready for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

The outdoor cooking school called Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking is the brainchild of Chef David Hussey. Hussey grew up in Sheffield, a city in the north of England. As an artistic student in school, he found himself searching for structure. “I was a bit of a wild teenager, so I needed direction,” he says.

After a year of art school, he dropped out and planned to join the military because it provided structure, discipline, and clear feedback. However, a broken kneecap put his military plans on hold, so Hussey got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant instead. Unbeknownst to him, this put him on the long road to Steel Pioneer. One day, a cook at the restaurant didn’t show up, so the head chef had 17-year-old Hussey jump into cooking.

“I had a naturally artistic way of putting the food on the plates,” Hussey recalls. “I liked the fact that it was kind of like the military—you immediately know if you’ve done good or bad—and it was a creative outlet that fell into my lap.”

The fast-paced but structured setting with artistry mixed in was just what Hussey needed. He remembers the days before celebrity chefs were as famous as they are now through television, the internet, and social media. “It wasn’t a cool job. It was just a trade, like being a plumber or electrician.”

He worked his way through college, earning a degree in food marketing with the goal of moving out of the kitchen, but six months in an office taught him that sitting still all day and dealing with the less pleasant aspects of office culture weren’t for him.

Hussey then became somewhat nomadic, traveling in southeast Asia for nine months and then spending a year in Australia with a work visa. He worked in a nice restaurant in Sydney and learned that Australia’s food culture was leaps and bounds ahead of England and America. “The things everyone talks about now—local produce, sustainability, locally owned restaurants—they were all doing that in Australia. There were hardly any chain restaurants because they didn’t last.”

At 25 years old, he found a renewed ardor for cooking and began taking his career as a chef seriously. He moved to south England and worked in private schools like Eton College, the private boys’ boarding school with notable alumni like Princes William and Harry. The school expected Michelin-star level dishes—not just for students, but also for the faculty and special events with elite guest lists.

Hussey won awards while working at Eton, and he entered live competitions—think “Top Chef” but not televised.

Hussey’s career then shifted to the corporate food world. In London, he worked for big investment banks and law firms where he prepared fine dining meals for lunch meetings and events. These high-end corporations wined and dined businesspeople with meals prepared on site by chefs. “It’s fine dining level food in an office,” explains Hussey.

However, by 2018, the long hours and long commute had worn Hussey down. “I didn’t have time to have a life outside of work. I loved it, and I was very driven to do it, but eventually I got burnt out.”

Once again, Hussey moved to another country. He sold his possessions, got a job through Workaway (a program that connects travelers with free housing in exchange for work), and moved to Cambodia. Taking a break from the cooking, he took an entry-level job at a movie theatre, but the culinary world found him again. His boss had a side business making to-go meals, and when he found out Hussey was a chef, he convinced him to work for the business.

Eventually, Hussey needed to earn more money, so he became a chef at an international school in Beijing. This is when he met Julie Wernau, an American journalist with “The Wall Street Journal.” The corporate job in London had kept Hussey too busy to date, but in romcom worthy fashion, life brought the British chef and American journalist together in China.

Every romcom has a challenge to be conquered, though, before the credits can roll. For this couple, it was a long-distance relationship, forced on them by COVID-19. Wernau had to return to New York City, and Hussey took a job at a small vegetarian/vegan restaurant back in Sheffield where he rode out the waves of COVID lockdowns and reopenings.

This unique season became a refreshing one for Hussey. “I had complete creative freedom. I created the menu. It was a challenging period, but I was enjoying the job, and I had a really good work/life balance.” The hardest part was being away from Wernau, but in May 2023, he got a sponsorship to work as a corporate chef in New York City so he could be with her. “I had to go back to the dark side, to the big corporate job that was paying great money.”

That fall, the couple vacationed in Utah, visiting several national parks. Hussey remembers, “I basically came up with the concept for Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking whilst hiking in Utah, this fire cooking school where I teach people how to cook over an open fire and then people eat together family-style outside.”

Hussey has long loved outdoor recreation, like rock climbing, fishing, and cooking over a fire. For him, camping doesn’t include freeze-dried backpacking meals. “I’ve always approached it as a chef. I’m not doing burgers; it’s always elevated.” he says.

In Oct. 2024, the couple married and began looking for the ideal place to start Steel Pioneer. While vacationing in Chattanooga, they connected with a realtor and found a house that checked all their boxes: At least two acres of land, no more than half an hour from Chattanooga, enough warm months in the year for outdoor cooking, outdoor recreation in the area, and within their price range. When they visited this Stanley Road property in the Davis community, they knew it was the spot.

Once “The Wall Street Journal” approved Wernau to work remotely, the couple moved to Dade in February of this year. Wernau told the Journal that working remotely would benefit her journalism: She covers health, mental illness, and addiction with a focus on Appalachia and rural areas, but the Journal didn’t have writers living in these places. Instead, people were reporting on the South while living in Manhattan, so this move made perfect sense for Wernau.

The first-ever Steel Pioneer class was on July 24, and Hussey has stayed busy ever since. He offers classes on several different days, most starting at 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., with a variety of themes and menus.

In Hussey’s words, “It’s a four-hour experience that’s great to bring people to. Guys want to come cook on fire, and their wives and girlfriends want a date night cooking class. It ticks a lot of boxes. It’s cooking like a chef on the open fire and teaching people how they can hold a dinner party and have friends over and cook an impressive meal over the fire.”

Some of the classes he has coming up are:

• Argentine BBQ: Dyer Livestock Angus Tomahawk Steak with Chimichurri and Criolla, Papas a la Parrilla, and Provoleta
• Fall Vegetarian and Plant-Based Feast on the Fire
• Spatchcocked Chicken with Blackened Spice Rub, Charred Autumn Vegetables Tossed in Ember Oil, and Fire-Roasted Pumpkin Barley Risotto
• Wood Fired Pizza Class with S’mores
• Friendsgiving on the Fire: Iron Root Pastures Turkey, Charred Sweet Potato, Wood Fired Mac n Cheese, and The Best Gravy

The price per person varies depending on the class and ingredients, and the prices reflect the expense of fresh, local ingredients. Hussey explains, “To me, it’s important to support local farms that are doing things the traditional, regenerative way. I could get ingredients from the grocery store, but it’s not the same quality. It would bring the price of the class down, but that’s doing a disservice to the community because I want small businesses to be supported by Steel Pioneer. We’re here to be part of the community.”

Already, Steel Pioneer has been able to support:

• Iron Root Pastures (Rising Fawn)
• Quail Run Farm (just across state line in Lookout Valley)
• Dyer Livestock Beef (New Salem)
• Forman Pottery (St. Elmo)
• A small farm in Ringgold
• Highway 11 Graphics (Trenton)
• The wood seller at the corner of Piney Road and GA-136
• An 85-year-old carpenter near Racoon Mountain

Aside from strongly suggesting using hardwood because of its slower burn time, Hussey says cooking over fire can be simple, and he wants people to feel comfortable trying it at home. He focuses on high-quality ingredients but simple tools. He says that if he can cook like a chef while camping, then anyone can do it in the backyard. “I love it because I’m into living off the land, foraging, hunting. It’s how people were cooking for tens of thousands of years, and it’s about community: Everyone gravitates to a fire.”

While in the corporate culinary scene, Hussey missed watching people enjoy the food, but now he experiences that with every class. He also missed perfecting the overall experience, from the placement of the dishware to the order the food is served to the setting. “Every single little detail, that’s what it’s about; giving people that great experience where they feel welcome and engaged with the food they’re eating.”

Hussey has several other events and projects coming up in addition to the on-site classes. One is a monthly residency at Quail Run Farm (starting in November; email davidhusseychef@gmail.com for details). Another is a monthly “secret kitchen” dinner at Selah Ridge Treehouse Resort in Ringgold (open to ten people for an exclusive chef’s table experience; visit selahridgetreesort.com/thesecretkitchen). He hopes to eventually offer a food photography class in Chattanooga, so follow Steel Pioneer’s social media accounts to stay updated on all future events and appearances.

Visit steelpioneerfirecooking.com to see upcoming classes, and find “Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking” on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

For a native European who has lived on multiple continents, moving to the American South might seem daunting or uncomfortable, but it was natural for Hussey. He remembers watching the TV show “Deep Fried Masters” with his brothers which stirred an appreciation for America’s state fair culture and food scene. The 1945 Fair was a treat for Hussey because “it was like a little version of a state fair.”

Wernau appreciates city life more than her husband, but since moving to the mountain, she’s grown to love this place and the community. This summer, two neighbors helped the couple work on their newly purchased zero turn mower, and one of the neighbors often brings over eggs from his hens.

“That sense of community is so important to us,” says Hussey. “Everyone on this road is so lovely. Everyone’s lived here since the 70s. To me, this is the real America with real people and real community. New York is like living in London, but full of Americans. Everyone in London thinks London is the greatest city in the world, everyone in New York thinks New York is the greatest city in the world, and everyone in Chicago thinks Chicago is the greatest city in the world, but they’re all kind of the same.”

The name “Steel Pioneer” pays homage to both Hussey’s childhood home and his new home on the mountain. Sheffield is an old steel city, and Dade County still carries a pioneer spirit, he explains, so Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking merged both heritages into the perfect description of this unique experience atop Sand Mountain.