My Journey of Building Ovens

Just to start, I’m not an oven builder, or a welder, I’m a chef, been one for 17 years now. In the last 6 years I started specializing in pizza, and that took me further and further. This week I’m putting the casing on the second oven I’ve built. so yeah, I’m pretty deep inside the pizza rabbit hole…

The advantages of building my own oven are many, in this mobile catering speed is of an essence, and my ovens get very hot very quickly, about 400c in 40 minutes, this heat retention allows the oven to recover as well, so when I’m out on a big pizza catering, pushing out 200 pizzas, the oven loses heat, the stone floor loses heat, so an oven with a good recovery time is important, using a mix of designs.

·        The dome on the inside is between an Italian oven and a Portuguese oven helps with the air circulation and maximizing cooking space.

·        Dome materials that are reflective of heat, instead of absorbing, helps direct the heat to the floor for recovery.

·        Mouth ratio that allows enough heat to stay in, yet enough oxygens to enter is also important.

These elements help to create a good leopard crust on the rim and a crunchy bottom to balance the ingredient, promising each pizza, even at high capacity, is loyal to its quality.

When towing an oven, I always need to think of the weight, big heavy oven needs a big heavy trailer. Allot of my Pizza Pary Caterings are in private residences or Weddings at city venues, where maneuverability is important. Building my own ovens, and trailers, allows me to determine the weight, and they are all mounted on a single axle trailer that is an easy fit in tight spots.

·        Using materials found in professional kilns allows the ovens to be durable and behave like a classic stone oven.

·        Steel frame gives the strength while minimizing the weight.

·        Deciding the shape of the oven gives me a mounting option that keeps the trailer balanced while towing.

Following these guidelines gave me Pizza Oven Trailers that are lightweight and are easy to fit in every venue.

I would like to thank the Men Shed association of Australia, and the Fremantle Men’s Shed that allows me to build my ovens and have created a wonderful community of people that enjoy doing and creating. Getting to know these community helped me greatly and keeps helping me at many turns of life.