Entries tagged with 'ovens'
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 14, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Ten grand might be out of your budget, but think how perfect that flaky, wood-fired crust will get. Made in France, this Le Panyol oven is kiln-fired, meaning it has a thermally insulated chamber, which is this case is made of natural clay. Surrounded by a stainless steel frame with a sleek, weatherproof copper-quartz finish, this dream oven speedily heats up (in under 45 minutes) and uses less wood than all the other (probably cheaper than $9,995) wood-fired ovens. [via Epi-Log]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 20, 2008 at 1:00 PM
And here's another addition to the Slice Nationwide Coal-Oven Pizza Map. This one in the Wolverine State. —The Mgmt.
There is a coal-oven pizza place in Farmington Hills, Michigan, called Tomatoes Apizza. It recently added the coal oven. The owner learned his art in New Haven, Connecticut.
—P. J.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I'm obsessing over this Japanese stovetop pizza oven that looks like it would replicate the ideal baking conditions of a traditional Italian pizza oven. I say "looks like" because, honestly, could this thing really work? I have my doubts. Not to mention that the pies that come out look incredibly small.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 19, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Last week on Slice, I showed you some photos of a home-built backyard pizza oven in Kansas City with a promise that I'd try to chat with the builder. Here's the result, a quick interview with its builder-owner.
Name: Dan Curry
Age: 31
Location: Kansas City
Occupation: Lawyer
I've been told you used eight different kinds of brick and took seven months to build this oven. True?
Just two kinds of bricks, fire bricks, and a few regular bricks. I did use five different kinds of concrete.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 12, 2007 at 5:38 PM
A good friend of mine, Andy G., who lives in Kansas City and who I've known since college days, emailed me last Friday: "I'm going to my friend Dan's place for pizza tomorrow. He built his own backyard oven."
So earlier this week, Andy emails me a link to some photos of Dan's oven, along with this info:
It was amazing. Some of the best pizza I have ever had. He used a good dough recipe and made a great sauce from scratch. But the oven:
He used EIGHT different types of brick.
It took him over SEVEN months to build.
I was surprised by how fast the pizzas cooked. About three minutes per pie.
Of course, they were all small. He made about twenty by my estimates. Each
was different.
He used the plans from some restaurant in Australia.
It is unbelievable.
I'll see if I can contact Dan and get some more details on his amazing-looking oven. It's really beautiful.
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 20, 2007 at 3:15 PM
From last week's New York Times Travel section—Mario Batali and family kickin' it Michigan style. Naturally, the pizza-oven bits caught my eye. (That's Batali's imported wood-burner at right.)
Watching Mario Batali shovel a pizza topped with chopped tomatoes, wet chunks of fresh mozzarella and grilled artichokes into his crackling outdoor pizza oven, it is easy to imagine you are in a hill town outside Bologna, perhaps even in Borgo Capanne, where Mr. Batali apprenticed for three years at a trattoria. The surrounding spruce trees and the wind off the lake only add to the air of authenticity, as does the wood smoke that plumes out from the top of the brick oven and the smell of baking bread.
But, dude, get this: He's in Michigan. I know, right?
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 19, 2006 at 8:49 AM
They can singe hair off your arms, take hours to heat up and cost thousands of dollars. But such obstacles are tolerable hurdles to a small band of pizza fanatics who are making outdoor wood-burning ovens -- the kind more often found in Italian restaurants -- the latest addition to the multitasking backyard.
Backyard Ovens Deliver the Pizza [WSJ; subscription required]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 22, 2006 at 7:33 AM
By day, he's a cop. In his time off, Dave Garro of Akron, Ohio, bakes pizza and bread in his homemade brick oven.
Most of my favorite food writers and my favorite food TV show (Alton Brown's Good Eats) have one thing in common: They all strive to get to the heart of the topic they're highlighting. Whether it's Mr. Brown delving into deep-frying or Jeffrey Steingarten taking a close look at coal-fired pizza ovens, they all try to get to the principle or mechanics behind the food.
I, too, try to explore the behind-the-scenes aspects of pizza, whether it's growing basil from scratch or making homemade mozzarella. I like to reduce the process to the basic elements. So, too, does Mr. Garro:
Garro built his oven the hard way. He didn’t use one of the outdoor-oven kits that are available because they’re too expensive. Ditto for hiring someone to build it for him. And he didn’t buy any of the plans sold on the Internet because the ovens weren’t big enough for his taste.
Instead, Garro bought a book, ‘‘The Bread Builders’’ by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott, which delves into the theory of constructing and baking in brick ovens. Garro had never laid bricks, but he enjoys home remodeling projects and was confident he could figure it out. He borrowed books on bricklaying from the library and taught himself.
The quote from his wife is pretty good:
‘‘I was adamantly opposed to this thing. I did not want that monstrosity in my yard,’’ said Garro’s wife, Michelle. Her opposition didn’t melt until she tasted the first pizza. Now she smiles as she watches through the dining room window as Garro rakes coals from the oven outside.
Homemade oven bakes backyard bread, perfect pizza [The Pueblo Chieftain]
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 4, 2003 at 10:55 AM
A Harvard education has many perks. Not only is a degree from the prestigious school a ticket to power, money, and the good life, but if you live in New York City, you get a world-class club with "a library, a reading room, a gallery of art, and such other appurtenances and belongings as are usual in clubs and club houses."
With the expansion of the Harvard Club's 44th Street headquarters, "such other appurtenances" now include international rules squash courts and, of more interest to Slice, a pizza oven.
The New York Times reports:
The 1894 clubhouse, which had major additions in 1905, 1915 and 1947, had an out-of-the way women's restroom in the basement and a mechanical lift for handicapped access to the building that required an operator with a key.
"The program for the original building didn't anticipate all of the club's present uses," said Rosamaria Colina, chairwoman of the club's art and architecture committee. The project also covered some renovations, including a modern kitchen with a pizza oven and a bar with wood paneling (the old one had concrete block � painted crimson).
So hey: Are any of you readers Harvard alumni who would be willing to get us in for a taste? If so, a couple of us work just one block away from the club and we could meet you there in a (crimson) flash.
