Wood, Fire and Stone: Pizza Ovens Are Now Part of the Range

A veranda gives you somewhere dry to sit. It does not, on its own, give you a reason to be out there on a cool evening in April. For that you need something that draws people out of the house, and very little does it as reliably as the smell of a wood fire and the promise of pizza in ninety seconds.

So we have added wood-fired pizza ovens to what we offer. Here is what is in the range and how to pick the right one.

Why Wood Fire Is Different

A domestic oven tops out at a temperature well short of what a pizza wants. A wood-fired oven with a stone floor runs far hotter, so the base crisps and the top blisters before the middle has a chance to go soggy. The result is a different food altogether. And it is not only pizza: bread, roast vegetables, fish and a joint of meat all come out of these ovens better than they go in.

Start Small or Feed a Crowd

The ovens we offer come from Igneus and from Clementi, an Italian maker whose Clementi Original is about as traditional as a pizza oven gets. The differences between models are mostly about size, and size is about how many people you feed at once.

The Igneus Bambino is the place to begin. It is compact enough for a small terrace, heats quickly, and cooks one pizza at a time, which is plenty for a family. If you entertain regularly, a mid-sized oven such as the Igneus Pro 750 holds its heat for longer and takes two pizzas together, so the cook gets to sit down as well.

At the top of the range are ovens that would not look out of place in a restaurant kitchen, for people who regularly cook for a garden full of guests.

Wood, or Wood and Gas?

Purists will want wood, and there is real pleasure in managing a fire. But it does take a little time and attention. A dual fuel oven such as the Clementi Gold wood and gas model gives you both: gas on a Wednesday when you want supper in twenty minutes, wood on a Saturday when the fire is half the point.

Where to Put It

This matters more than the choice of oven. A wood-fired oven produces smoke and a great deal of heat, so it belongs in the open or at the open edge of a covered area, with clear space above the flue, and never tucked under a glass roof. The best arrangement is usually the oven just outside the structure and the table just inside it, so the cook is part of the conversation and the guests stay dry. A louvred pergola such as the Pinela Delight suits this well, because the roof over the table can be opened on a fine evening and closed when it is not.

Think about a surface beside the oven for preparation, somewhere dry to keep the wood, and how far you have to walk from the kitchen with a tray of dough. If you are planning a full outdoor kitchen, the Grillandia Pizza Unit builds the oven into the worktop run so all of that is solved in one piece.

The Bigger Picture

We started offering these because customers kept telling us the same thing. Once the roof was up, the next question was always what to do under it. An oven is one of the best answers we know, and it turns a covered patio into the place where the evening happens.

If you are planning a structure and think you might want to cook outside, tell us at the start. It changes where we would suggest putting the posts.