Brits Keen to Master the Skill of Cooking With Wood

A UK-based pizza oven supplier is seeing an increase in enquiries for its wood-fired garden ovens, as stay-at-home Brits start to plan out their time and look to learn new skills, including the art of wood fired cookery.

The team at Valoriani UK introduced the wood fired oven to the English market in the early Noughties so have seen the seasonal demand for home ovens come and go each year. Although it launched its baby oven – the Fornino – into the market in 2015, the fifth anniversary of its launch has been marked with a new wave of enquiries, from Brits wishing to cook in their gardens, with a real flame.

Preston-based Valoriani has also witnessed increased demand for its ‘Build Your Own’ kits, as DIY enthusiasts look for something to keep them occupied over the coming months.

Cooking with wood takes a bit of practice but it is something enquirers seem keen to tackle, as months of self-isolation lay ahead. The skill lies in not just lighting the perfect flame in the oven but then manipulating the wood supply added to the oven, so as to maintain the ideal temperature for the food you wish to cook. 

For instance, a pizza needs to be cooked when the oven floor has reached a temperature of between 350 to 400 degrees Celsius. If you are baking a dish like Aubergine Parmigiana, it need only be around 280 degrees. Slow cooking can be achieved at a lower temperature still and, with a Valoriani oven, some dishes can be cooked overnight with no flame and just the residual heat left in the oven. Cooking breakfast the next morning, using the retained heat, is also possible.

As well as fire lighting, fire feeding and temperature control, the pizza oven owner needs to learn how to operate a pizza paddle and move food and wood around the oven, for best effect. If they wish to use a Tuscan Grill from Valoriani, this can mean pushing embers to the centre of the oven, to create a ‘cooking over coals’ style methodology. 

Luckily new oven owners are able to take advantage of a training video, to help get them on their way to becoming a ‘pizzaiolo’. And, although the training room at Valoriani UK’s headquarters cannot be used under the present restrictions, the experts are very generous with their advice.

Valoriani is also feeding the enthusiasm of its existing oven owners, by creating new recipes for them to try at home over the coming months. This is underpinned by the same thought process that has seen Channel 4 rapidly commissioning a new cookery programme with Jamie Oliver, which will see viewers being shown new recipes, using items lurking in the kitchen cupboard. 

Notably, Valoriani UK’s director, Andrew Manciocchi, fitted Jamie Oliver’s home pizza oven for him many years ago and then sold his original company to Jamie Oliver. His decision to set up in business with Italian oven manufacturers Valoriani, who had previously supplied Jamie Oliver but who had enjoyed a much longer relationship with the Manciocchis, came in 2015. Valoriani UK was founded as a joint venture between the Manciocchi and Valoriani families and. the Fornino was created and launched into the market, so that keen pizza lovers and home cooks could recreate dishes enjoyed on their travels.

Andrew Manciocchi says: “Those Brits who have fully understood the current health situation, and who are acting responsibly, are looking for new ways to pass their time, particularly because we are heading towards summer. Learning to cook with wood is a new challenge for many but a great way for foodies to while away what could be long days and evenings. We feel the current health situation will give birth to a new wave of wood-fired cooks.”

For anyone considering this, Valoriani UK has a big word of caution. “Not all wood ovens can be operated legally, as not all have DEFRA accreditation,” says Andrew. “It is surprising how many do not have the required certification to be operated in Smoke Control Areas, which could lead to their owners being fined. All Valoriani ovens have the required certification to be operated anywhere outdoors. It’s a message of buyer beware, if buying other ovens, however, and buyers should ask to see the DEFRA certification and also check up on whether what they are shown is actually valid.”

Other things to watch out for are pizza oven longevity. Many me-too wood-fired ovens have tried to follow in Valoriani’s tracks but have been made with unsuitable materials and also micro-mesh technology – metal mesh embedded into concrete to try to help the oven’s heat-up and heat retention capacities. Valoriani rejected this many years ago, because this makes the metal contract and expand during cooking. This leads to the crumbling of the oven’s dome, after just a short period of use. Many purchasers have found their decision to buy one of these ovens a very costly mistake to have made. 

Valoriani will be working on its training and skills programme, using videos and ‘guest slots’, with the latter comprising videos submitted by Valoriani-owning restaurants wishing to stay in touch with their customers.  In normal times, it also runs training schools in its culinary centre in Preston.

“We want to support the desire of those wishing to learn how to cook with wood,” adds Andrew. “It’s a mesmerising skill to master and, once they start, we believe foodies and keen home cooks will be hooked. In a couple of years’ time, we are sure Fornino oven owners will be trading up and buying a bigger mobile oven, or having a full pizza oven installation built into their garden. It provides a little bit of the Mediterranean, whether you live in Barnet, Bangor or Blackpool.”

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Editors notes

Valoriani UK is the UK arm of Valoriani, based in Reggello, Tuscany - the manufacturer of Italy's hugely respected Valoriani pizza ovens, known as the Rolls Royce 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. Consequently, Valoriani's home garden ovens (built-in and mobile) and kitchen ovens, and its range of restaurant and mobile/street-food ovens are best in class and the choice of leading chefs and celebrities.