Who Made the First Pizza Oven?

If you are a pizza aficionado, love wood-fired gourmet pizza and fancy having an oven either at home or in your eatery, asking yourself who made the first pizza oven can be a very positive move.

Of course, wood-fired pizza ovens are as old as the hills.  They existed, as wood-burning hearths, back in the Paleolithic age.  Egyptians were known to use dome-shaped clay ovens to cook flatbreads.  The remains of Pompeii have revealed that the Romans were using dome-shaped brick ovens to bake food too.  The communal oven, shared by the entire village, is something that was evidenced in medieval times across Europe.  That tradition, of the villagers sharing a resource in which to bake their bread, has existed even into the 20th century and post-World War II period.

If you wish to be pedantic and ask who first baked pizzas in such an oven, you will probably end your quest for an answer in the city of Naples.  The city is the birthplace of both the Marinara – served to fishermen returning from sea – and the Margherita pizza.  The latter was created in honour of Queen Margherita by Neapolitan chef, Raffaele Esposito, when she visited the city in 1889.

But who made the first modern pizza oven?

But when you ask the question, who made the first pizza oven these days, you might well be asking who made the first pre-fabricated oven.  That’s the sort of ready-assembled pizza oven that you see in home gardens these days, with no fixing together required.

We are very proud to reveal to you, as Valoriani’s supplier in the UK market, that the answer to that particular question is Valoriani.  Valoriani, a family firm based in Tuscany in Italy, made (or invented, if you will), the pre-fabricated wood-burning pizza oven, back in the 1940s.  Since then, they have spent decades at the top of the wood-burning pizza oven tree, unsurpassed by any other manufacturer or brand that has come along since.

The history of the modern pizza oven

So how did the first pre-fabricated woodfired oven come about?  Well, necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and there was a true necessity at the time.  This was Italy going through the impacts of the Second World War and there was a real need to feed people.  The Valoriani family were no strangers to pizza ovens, being manufacturers of top-grade pizza oven refractory bricks, with which homeowners and villagers could build their own traditional ovens at the heart of their community.

At this time, the Valorianis were already renowned specialists in refractory clay products.  The family firm had been founded way back in 1890 by Pietro Valoriani and it had built a reputation as an artisan producer of vases, bricks and other clay products.  In pursuit of greater excellence, the 1940s saw Gino Valoriani move the family firm to Reggello in Tuscany, where he had discovered a quarry with an optimum supply of refractory clay.  The level of alumina in this clay was perfect for the firing-up of refractory brick, so it made sense to capitalise on this great resource. This superb clay – cotto clay – is still used, to this day.

But dispatching refractory bricks for the self-build of ovens during wartime meant delays in recipients being able to get an oven up and running, at a time when the population, in a war-ravaged country, needed to feed itself.  That was the catalyst behind the creation of the world’s first pre-fabricated woodfired oven - the brainchild of Silvio Valoriani, son to Gino.

How the world’s first pre-fabricated pizza oven came about

Silvio recognised that the whole process could be simplified if the Valoriani family could find a way to dispatch ready-constructed ovens, not the component parts of ovens.  He sat down at his design board and devised a plan that involved creating an oven that was built not of bricks but of four interlocking vaults.  He channelled the family’s centuries-old experience in selecting and handling best-in-class raw materials and designed a self-supporting, segmented vault.  He then managed to increase the stability of the design and the rest is history.  The birth of the world’s modern pizza oven was complete.  The first pre-fabricated refractory oven came into being.

The perfect woodfired pizza oven

However, it was somewhat more than that.  When designing the oven, in pursuit of perfection, that is exactly what Silvio achieved.  The structural design of his vaulted system was perfect in all of its properties, creating the optimal air-flow under the dome and delivering the ideal cooking environment within.  This design has proved head and shoulders above anything that has come since, to the extent that it is still the design used by Valoriani ovens today.  Very many other manufacturers and designers have tried to imitate this oven, but all have failed to get anywhere near matching Silvio’s design.

Reputable and trusted woodfired pizza ovens

Nowadays, Silvio’s son, Massimo, is at the helm, supported by his daughter, Viola.  Despite all of the huge changes the world has seen since the 1940s, the fundamental principles of the Valoriani factory remain unchanged.  They still only construct ovens using optimal raw materials, to the best-in-class design of Silvio’s, and with artisan skills at the heart of the production process.  Everything is manufactured in-house, when it comes to the component parts of ovens, ensuring top-level quality control.  No other manufacturer of pizza ovens in the world manufactures both the dome and oven floor under one roof.

The floor can also be changed in its composition, so as create the ideal cooking environment for different foodstuffs, such as bread.

Authentic Tuscan wood-fired ovens made with pride

Workers with a true pride in their job and ovens even hand-apply mosaic tiles, or hand-paint distinctive parts of each Valoriani oven.  This is artisanship at its very best.

All are carrying on the legacy of Silvio’s brilliance and helping to evolve new solutions for the 21st century, such as gas and electric-powered Valoriani ovens.

The ‘good bricks’ at Valoriani really know their stuff and we are so proud to support them and ensure that the iconic Valoriani ‘V’ graces the front of pizza ovens in restaurants, pizzerias and pubs across the UK, as well as being the symbol that neighbours envy over the garden fence.

So, if anyone now asks you who invented the pizza oven, you know the answer.  Be sure to tell everyone else!

To find out more about the superb ovens that are now in our UK communities thanks to Silvio’s brilliance, whether you want a commercial or domestic wood or gas-fired pizza oven, a ready-to-use static or wheeled oven, a pizza oven for your mobile catering business, or one that can be built into a bespoke surround or outdoor kitchen in your garden, please call 07743 847647.

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Editors notes

Orchard Ovens is the domestic and commercial pizza oven supplier in the UK of Valoriani, based in Reggello, Tuscany - the manufacturer of Italy's hugely respected Valoriani pizza ovens, known as the Maserati of pizza ovens and the kings of clay. These ovens are made from superb refractory clay - cotto clay - found in the family's quarry and unique, thanks to having just the right alumina. This allows Valoriani ovens to heat up quickly and retain heat superbly, bring huge advantages to homeowners, as well as restaurant owners, hotels, pubs, mobile caterers, pizzerias, takeaways and more.

Orchard Ovens supplies some of Britain's best-known restaurants and chefs, whilst it is also a specialist creator of outdoor kitchens and wood-fired oven builds for the rich and famous, as well as everyday homeowners wishing to add value to their home and enjoy an outdoor lifestyle to the full.