Asheville · North Carolina · Est. 2019

Oak & Ember
Wood-Fired Catering

Seasonal feasts cooked over live oak coals.

A traveling open-flame kitchen for weddings, corporate gatherings, and long-table private dinners across Western North Carolina.

Plan Your Event View Seasonal Menus

Farm-to-table Live-fire cooking Fully staffed service

The Oak & Ember Way

We build a fire first, and let the season decide the rest.

Every menu we cook begins at the coal bed. We split our own oak, burn it down to embers in the morning, and let the heat shape the food — char on the green tomatoes, smoke on the trout, a crust on the bread that only live fire can give. Nothing arrives pre-cooked; the flame is the whole point.

The rest comes from the farms an hour up the Blue Ridge. We write our menus the week of your event around whatever is actually being picked, so what lands on your long table is honest, abundant, and tastes like the mountains it came from.

— Mara & Theo Founders & Pitmasters

What We Bring to the Table

Three things, done over fire

Live-Fire Cooking

An open-flame kitchen we haul to your venue — grills, a wood-fired oven, and a coal pit, all running on split oak and a slow morning burn.

Farm-to-Table

We source from named Blue Ridge growers and write the menu the week of your event around the morning's harvest — never a frozen shortcut.

Full-Service Hospitality

Chefs, servers, bar, rentals, and a captain who runs the floor so your only job that night is to sit down and eat with the people you love.

A Taste of the Table

Late-Summer Supper

As served, August on the river

See Every Season's Menu

From the Long Table

What guests remember

"They cooked the entire wedding over open fire in our backyard and it was the most alive food I've ever eaten. Guests are still talking about the charred bread."

Hannah R. · September wedding, Weaverville

"We've hired a lot of caterers for company offsites. Nobody has ever made 120 people feel like they were at a family supper. Flawless from first email to last plate."

Devin M. · Corporate retreat, Asheville

"Mara built the menu around my mother's old garden vegetables for her 70th. I cried at the tomatoes. Actually cried. That's the level we're at here."

Priya S. · Private dinner, Black Mountain

"The fire pit became the whole party. People gathered around Theo for hours. It wasn't catering, it was a night nobody wanted to end."

Caleb T. · Rehearsal dinner, Fairview

Before You Ask

Questions by the firelight

How far will you travel for an event?

We cover all of Western North Carolina from our Asheville base — Black Mountain, Weaverville, Hendersonville, Brevard, and everywhere along the Blue Ridge. Anything beyond a 90-minute drive, we're still happy to talk; we just add a travel-and-lodging line to the estimate.

What's the minimum guest count?

Our wood-fired service runs best for gatherings of 30 and up. For intimate private dinners we do book a limited number of long-table evenings for 12 to 24 guests each season — those fill quickly, so reach out early.

Do you handle dietary restrictions?

Always. Because we write menus around the harvest, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free guests are never an afterthought — they get their own fire-cooked plate, not a sad substitution. Tell us in the inquiry and we'll build it in.

Can you cook at our venue, or do you need a kitchen?

We bring the kitchen with us. Our rig includes a wood-fired oven, a live-coal grill, and a fire pit, all freestanding. We need open-air space, a water source nearby, and a venue that permits open flame — we'll walk the site with you in advance.

How far ahead should we book?

For peak-season weddings (May through October) we recommend 9 to 12 months out. Corporate and private dinners can often be booked within 6 to 8 weeks depending on the calendar. The fastest way to hold a date is the inquiry form.

Oak & EmberWood-Fired Catering