Listen to the full episode here:
Or watch the video version here:
From bank statements to steak and chips,
Fire to Fork creator Harry Fisher has demonstrated how taking a gamble on your own creativity can pay off as much as insolvency banking can pay off your debt.
In this episode of the Snowys Camping Show – it’s Ben and Lauren who hit subscribe on the campfire cook’s successful transition from banking to innovating, as the three of them talk content creation, campfire food, and the future of Fire to Fork.
Shortcuts:
00:00 – Intro
01:03 – Introducing Harry Fisher from Fire to Fork
02:20 – The Origins of Fire to Fork
06:20 – An Insolvency Banker with a Passion for Food
08:23 – Kickstarting Fire to Fork
11:11 – Managing Financially
15:19 – The Leap of Faith
21:32 – Harry’s Book
23:19 – Campfire Cooking
25:15 – Harry’s Essential Gear
34:00 – Harry’s Essential Pantry Items
37:37 – Cooking Seasonally
40:05 – Preparing a Fire for Cooking
44:55 – Vegetarian Options?
47:07 – Rapid Fire Question Round
01:01:26 – From 2017, to Now
Mentioned in this Episode:
Products:
Gasmate 2-Burner Camping Stove with Grill
Campfire Protective Leather Gloves
Southern Metal Spinners Aussie Camp Oven
Supa Peg Supa Cube Stainless Steel Fire Pit
Blues Hog 100% Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal
Blues Hog 100% Natural Charcoal Briquettes
Brands:
Other:
Fire to Fork (YouTube channel)
The Origins of Fire to Fork
Before Fire to Fork, Harry completed a degree in Commerce, with a quadruple major in Investment Finance, Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Management. Maintaining an interest in investment banking, Harry graduated from university during the Global Financial Crisis and secured a job as an insolvency banker. He remained in this job for almost eight years, assisting people in paying off their debts.
One evening, over a beer and some campfire banter with successful 4WDing YouTuber Ronny Dahl, Harry’s passion for food and cooking was addressed. Ronny had noticed that Harry rarely ate the same meal twice – even while camping, preparing dishes like slow-cooked lamb and alike. To this, Ronny suggested he kickstarted an Instagram page centred around food and cooking. Already working exceptionally hard in his finance role, developing an understanding of social media and content creation seemed too hard at the time for Harry – before founding Fire to Fork only two weeks later.
An Insolvency Banker with a Passion for Food
Harry’s mother was an exceptional chef. Like mother like son, she never repeated a home-cooked meal – even in the space of a month. This meant Harry not only grew up with good food, but quickly developed a sound understanding of it.
Harry soon decided he enjoyed the challenge of cooking in the outdoors – namely the bush, without the convenience of standard cooking utilities. Owning just a standard, lunchbox-style, butane gas stove, he claims to not have taken a gas stove camping since 2016!
Kickstarting Fire to Fork
Taking a gamble on your own creative process is a massive decision.
Harry eventually left insolvency banking to be the General Manager of a software company, continuing to foster Fire to Fork for two and half years while working full-time. During this period, he maintained a primary focus on Instagram and released only one YouTube video with successful adventurer and content creator Graham Cahill. Yet to own the adequate filming equipment or microphones, Harry borrowed what he needed from Ronny.
From there, his videos were rather inconsistent, with only one released every four months. Despite remaining the most watched on his channel at 600K views, his first cooking-focused video took two hours to film with only one camera and boom mic!
Managing Financially
After resigning from his General Manager role at the software company, Harry’s intention was to look for another corporate job. While doing so, he leaned on Fire to Fork, filming more videos as well as accepting photography work and shoots for other small companies. In his first year of Fire to Fork, Harry turned over a few grand but made negative $30,000 – reiterating to Ben and Lauren how expensive content creation can be in the initial stages!
For financial support, Harry relied on both his wife – a doctor – and his savings. As well as this, living in the Kimberly with hospital accommodation and renting out of Perth meant expenses were often low; with no children at this stage either, most payments were for food, drink, and holidays.
With this lifestyle, creating and producing content was rather streamlined; Harry would make his way down to Cattle Beach at sunset, set up his awning, finish recording an episode in under two hours, and head straight home again. On the contrary, city living meant he’d instead drive for several hours to reach his destination. This required more packing and preparation, as he was often required to camp overnight.
The Leap of Faith
Given his background in business, Harry understood the most effective ways in which to interact with sponsors – and thanks to the support of his wife Sam, he didn’t have the concern of selling out early.
There are two reasons to pursue a business idea – for fun, and to leave the unfulfilling work of another job. For Harry, Fire to Fork wasn’t for fun – it was sustainable living that allowed for him to spend more time at home and become both a better husband and father. To achieve this, Harry took Fire to Fork from the quick and easy money grabs of non-VPM and League of Legends advertisements, to eventually the more fun, freestyle, and crazy content he creates today.
In his experience, Harry came to realise that content creators require an element of entertainment to develop trust in their audience. That said, he wanted to encourage this in his viewers by maintaining complete transparency behind the camera – which meant he suffered financially in the early stages! Eventually though, this approach paid off; when integrity is maintained, the right companies come to you with the right deals. Nowadays, Harry receives an average of two sponsor offers a day.
An example is Fire to Fork’s current sponsor, Zippo. As a successful company specialising in fire lighters and accessories, Zippo is well suited to the Fire to Fork brand. The agreement between the twois impactful, presenting equal business benefits. On the other hand, carrying out five small sponsorships involves constant brand mentions, devaluing each and so losing consumer trust.
Harry’s Book
While polished and professional, Harry’s book Fire to Fork: Adventure Cooking appeals to the average camper too. With exceptional imagery of mouth-watering meals, his recipes are achievable for any level of cooking.
Keep an eye out for Harry’s second book, to be released soon – and in the meantime, jump onto his YouTube channel for a video demonstrating how to create the Elvis Burger!
While polished and professional, Fire to Fork: Adventure Cooking appeals to the average camper too. Credit: Harry Fisher
Campfire Cooking
Most campers take a gas stove camping, where some believe campfire cooking is a challenging concept. In Harry’s professional opinion, it’s very doable, simply requiring that leap of faith.
For those in the beginner’s phase of campfire cooking, Harry recommends:
- Some sort of a grill, or something to put over fire. This simply transforms the fire into something that makes more sense to cook with, like a BBQ or hotplate.
- Starting with a familiar utensil, like a frypan, jaffle iron, or wok. A lot of dishes can be cooked with either of these, such as the classic jaffle.
- Cooking a simple meal like pasta as your first – because let’s face it, you can’t burn water!
As well as pasta, cooking snags on the fire is also a recommended beginner meal. Snags in a pan can be monitored just as they would be on a BBQ. Many have used BBQ in their life, so a pan is a helpful transition.
Cooking a meal as straightforward as snags also provides an adequate introduction to how campfire heat works. It doesn’t matter if a sausage burns… as much as it would if it were a good cut of steak!
Harry’s Essential Gear
A full gear list can be found on Harry’s website, and he plans to release a more budget-friendly version in due course too. Plus, jump on to the Fire to Fork YouTube channel to check out his cooking set-up from the back of his vehicle.
Harry’s top three recommended pieces of camp cooking equipment are:
- A grill. This can be utilised as BBQ, skillet, and more.
- Welding gloves. These can range from $8 to $80, but are both useful and important to keep on hand (literally!)
- Camp oven. With exceptional versatility, this can be used from cake baking to potato roasting. Harry recommends a spun steel construction, 70% lighter than the cast iron alternatives. While it both heats and cools faster, the temperature it heats to is on par with that of cast iron. Spun steel varieties also don’t crack when they’re dropped, and if dented can be popped back into shape. Their designs are often more ergonomic, with four handles and large lip.
Harry’s Essential Pantry Items
The basics include:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
- A neutral oil, such as rice bran or peanut (i.e. flavourless) – this is ideal for roasting potatoes with.
- Sriracha – with a high garlic content, this is often a punchy addition to sauces.
- Balsamic and red wine vinegar, for freshness.
- Red cabbage – while lettuce doesn’t keep well in the bush, red cabbage lasts for almost a month! The latter both cooks down well and is great for freshening up a meal with its sweeter flavour profile.
- Soy sauce
- Sugar – Harry’s tip is to carry these in individual paper sachets. The wrapping can simply be burned on the fire, and Harry appreciates that he can always refer to an accurate measurement. They take up very little room, and given he doesn’t use a lot of sugar in his cooking Harry only takes a small number anyway. Plus, when the box breaks, there’s no spillage.
Balsamic and red wine vinegar each add freshness to a dish. Credit: Harry Fisher
Cooking Seasonally
Throughout the year, Harry’s pantry remains consistent. The biggest alteration is the firepit.
In the summer, a ground fire is prohibited. Instead, Harry carries a tall firepit that sits at barbecue height. During the cooking period, it sits safe and high off the ground. He usually positions a lightweight, carbon welding blanket underneath to catch any bits and pieces that fly from the pit out onto exposed ground. Using a firepit in Summer also prevents Harry from alternatively driving 900 kilometres return, just to reach a campfire-friendly area.
Soon, Harry plans to release a summer series called ‘Friday Beers’ that centres around backyard fire cooking. This idea stemmed from his realization that barbecues out the back are what most people tend to get up to in the warmer months – so why watch someone go out of their way just to cook over a campfire? As cooking that’s closer to home (literally), Harry is also keen on having access to better utensils and ingredients for his content.
Preparing a Fire for Cooking
Ben and Lauren query whether Harry tends to have a preference for log sizes or wood types. While his short answer is ‘no’, he states that the main objective should be for the wood to be dry. If the wood splits or cracks, this is a good sign, while bendy wood often implies it’s too damp to burn sufficiently.
Harry also recommended testing its weight. As pine weighs very little, he recommends using heavier hardwood. Facebook Market Place is often recommended to find the right wood, as those selling via platforms alike often take pride in their firewood. Larger companies, on the other hand, usually lack the same care and quality.
In addition to wood, Harry loves to carry charcoal. Instead of heat beads, he chooses lump charcoal; chunks of carbonised wood. Briquettes, on the other hand, are portions of carbonised wood that have been ground down and bound together again with a type of starch. They smell different to lump charcoal, but work fine. That said, he prefers lump charcoal for its ease of lighting and long, two-hour burn, having it a better option for slow cooking in a camp oven.
Vegetarian Options?
While his mother-in-law is vegan, and some of his friends are vegetarian – Harry maintains that cooking with meat alternatives isn’t a strength of his. In some ways, he feels it would seem too forced if he were attempt it. Having grown up in a family of meat-eaters, vegetarian or vegan cooking isn’t a concept Harry feels comfortable offering good advice in, and doesn’t align with the authenticity of his brand.
That said – the closest he has come to vegetable-based cooking can be found on his website via his guide to roasting vegetables.
Rapid Fire Question Round
Making its first podcast debut, Ben and Lauren’s Rapid Fire Question Round is a series of questions from our listeners and subscribers. The interviewee must give the first answer that springs to mind. This week, it’s Harry Fisher in the hot seat:
- What product or attachment would you recommend for steaming over a fire?
A sieve on top of a pot or billy.
- How would you approach lifting a camp oven out of the heat?
Good quality welding gloves.
- How much money do you make off YouTube alone?
‘Bugger all!’ With 70K + subscribers, Harry makes roughly $35-$40K a year – not enough to live on.
- What is your go-to beer if Colonial IPA is unavailable?
Feral Brewing Co. Hop Hog, Pirate Life Brewing, or Balter XPA.
- What is your dream collaboration with another YouTuber?
Nat’s Would I Reckon
- What is the most fun collaboration you’ve had to date?
WA Camping Adventures for a burger comp, Salty Isolation in WA for fishing and camping-based content… and good friend Ronny Dahl!
- Peated or non-peated whisky?
Peated – but he drinks both. Harry prefers Irish and Scottish whiskies over American.
- Tents or swags – and why?
Swags! Harry likes the simplicity of rolling up everything in one.
- Favourite ice-cream flavour?
Salted caramel or peanut brittle. Harry likes a combination of salty, sweet, and crunchy – like some of Maggie Beer’s varieties.
- What was your worst cooking disaster over the fire?
A beef stroganoff. Harry bought the wrong sherry, which was too sweet. To make matters worse, the video took two days to film because he was severely sick at the time. When it came to tasting his stroganoff, he was disgusted! Even so, he left the full video as is, bought a bottle of white wine, and remade the entire dish again – which turned out to be delicious!
- Have you ever experienced a disaster that has impacted the filming of an episode?
Yes – and it still made it to air! Harry describes filming his first episode in Broome. It was a very hot day in February, and the recipe heroed mud crab. During the filming process, Harry noticed his dog Fred excreting black urine; he had overheated. Cranking the air-conditioning in the car, Harry drove him straight to the vet where he was diagnosed with pancreatitis caused by overheating. By the time he made it back to filming, he was emotionally exhausted, sweaty, and sunburnt – but finished the episode!
- What would you cook for your last ever meal, and where would you cook it?
Harry has somehow managed to incorporate steak and chips into most of his cooking videos – it’s a true favourite. He imagines a green peppercorn sauce or chimichurri on the side, cooked at either Running Waters campground in New South Wales, or – an apt choice – Harry’s Hole in the Kimberly!
- If it’s not steak and chips – what is it?
Spaghetti Carbonara! Not only is it an easy, filling, four-ingredient dish, but it makes for great leftovers.
- Portable blowers to get campfire coals going quickly – Yay or Nay?
YAY! Harry has four, recommending workshop blowers for better hand control. Plus, they’re useful for blowing up mattresses too! Harry uses his ARB twin compressor.
- Ben’s question: are you always in bare feet – and if so, are your feet made of cast iron?!
Yes – but even Harry’s boots burn more than his feet!
From 2017, to Now
As well as to his Instagram account, two YouTube channels, and website – Harry’s hectic lifestyle is also owing to his television show on Channel 7. With the last 12 episodes having already aired in Perth, the series is soon to hit the screens on 7Mate in a matter of weeks. Keep an eye on the TV guide during the prime 5:30pm slot on Saturdays (between the footy and the news)!
Thanks for listening, tune in again for next week’s episode!
Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of the Snowys Camping Show Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, or Stitcher so you never miss an upload.
If you have any questions for Ben and Lauren, make sure you head over to our Facebook group and let us know as we’d love to hear from you.
Catch you out there!
From tent pegs and air tents, to setups for summer and one-pot wonders – our gear gurus Ben and Lauren unpack the topics on every camper’s tongue, taking each minute to the limit with how-to’s, destinations, and expert interviews. Be it a swag, tent, or ‘swent’ – set up camp with us!
“How much money do you make off YouTube alone?
‘Bugger all!’ roughly $35-$40K a year – not enough to live on….”
If Harry doesn’t think that’s enough to live on, he’s not in touch with reality
Hey Mike, thanks for your insight 🙂 It’s certainly possible to live on, but may be tricky with a small family these days.