Competition from a Gas Oven?

The Outdoor Artisan Pizza Oven by Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet

Here's an interesting concept... a $4,000 tabletop gas-powered outdoor pizza oven. It has a stone floor and the maker claims it heats up quickly. My wood-burning oven takes about 2 hours to get to a full 800-900F. But still, pizza is hardly a "spontaneous" event if you're making your own dough, like I do (something I have to do the day before).

The webpage talks about a wood tray that somehow imparts more "wood flavor" than a wood-burning oven. I don't know if "flavor" comes from my wood burning oven. At pizza-making temperatures, there's no smoke -- just flame and heat. It's smoke that would impart flavor, right? Isn't that why you add smoking wood chips to a barbeque?

Has anyone seen one of these in action?

I still like the romance of my wood burning flame... my oven was more expensive than this, but I don't regret the purchase for a minute.

I'd Never Give Up Control of MY Oven!

Pizza and a movie, all grown up - Los Angeles Times (pictures)

Article -- Everybody loves Phil Rosenthal's movie night

This is quite the gourmet, high-end Hollywood backyard in this article, the pizza oven owned by the creator of the show "Everyone Loves Raymond."

From the article:

IT'S THE hottest day of the year -- 91 degrees -- and Phil Rosenthal is stacking almond wood kindling in the pizza oven of his Hancock Park home. In little more than an hour, a cook from Pizzeria Mozza will arrive, as he does most Sunday nights, and begin kneading dough and sprinkling cheese for the 25 to 30 guests who come for movie night.

A man I can admire -- I fired up my oven last Saturday on a 98 degree afternoon! It's never too hot for pizza. So he kneads dough... but hiring a chef? Even one from the famous Pizzeria Mozza? OK, so he does tend to his own oven... but still, part of what I enjoy the most is making my own pizzas. I'd never want to outsource that... well, unless Chris Bianco was visiting.

Check out the article for descriptions of many fancy, gourmet pizza toppings. And, it is L.A. after all, so the article is just as much about the Hollywood folks who were eating the pizza as there was about the pizza itself.

Be sure to also check out the pictures link!!

From Backyard to Restaurant

Star Community Newspapers - True Italian Pizza

Here's an article about a friend in the home wood burning pizza oven world, Jay Jerrier. He advised me on my oven, as he previously bought from my supplier, Forno Bravo.

He started with a home oven, and is now involved in the restaurant business, with a pizzeria near my home in Texas.

Pizza started out as a hobby for Jerrier.

“I only like to cook the things I like to eat,” Jerrier said. “I have a wood burning oven in my back yard and for a long time made a lot of really bad pizza.”

Once Jerrier realized his true passion was pizza he set about taking all the steps to make the best Neapolitan pizza ever. Those step including going through a program at Vera Pizza Napoletana in California.

Check out Campagna Pizza in Southlake, if you get a chance.

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