Californo Blog

Throwing a backyard pizza party has more chance of success than a party of any other food theme. Add the novelty and superior taste of a wood-fired pizza oven into the mix and your status as “best host of the year” is assured. But every good party takes a bit of planning. Here are our tips for throwing a killer backyard party with a wood-fired pizza oven.

Why Throw a Pizza Party?

In homes and restaurants across the nation, people are eating more pizza than ever before. Pizza is truly one of the nation’s favorite foods. Not only because we’re eating more of it, but because the majority of Americans love to eat it!

One in eight people in the US will eat a slice (or two, or eight) of pizza on any given day. Not only that, statistics show that people eating pizza vary little in terms of gender or race. The only thing that seems to have an impact is age. Older people eat less pizza in general. They don’t know what they’re missing!

Unlike BBQ cook-outs or more formal dinners, a pizza party caters to everyone. Vegetarians, vegans, and people with food intolerances rejoice. Every party guest can have a custom pizza that will suit their particular dietary needs. A considerate host is a good host, after all!

Benefits of a Brick Pizza Oven

Are you considering buying a brick pizza oven with backyard pizza parties in mind? The main thing to consider is size. The larger the oven, the more you can cook at one time. Bigger is better but a larger oven will be more expensive and take up more space than a smaller oven.

Here’s what you need to know about choosing the size of your brick pizza oven:

• Small ovens are usually 21 to 31 inches wide (interior width). These ovens can cook one large or two small pizza at a time and are great for baking a loaf or two of bread.
• Medium-sized ovens are between 31 and 39 inches wide and can cook two large pizzas. These ovens can also handle a whole suckling pig or lamb or similar.
• Large pizza ovens are sometimes referred to as commercial ovens. Up to 59 inches wide, these ovens can cook 4 or 5 large pizzas at a time. Perfect for large parties, these ovens are also used in the catering industry.

You also need to consider materials. Most wood-fired pizza ovens are made from brick or clay. These materials are fuel efficient and cost-effective. Stone wood-fired pizza ovens are available but tend to be more costly than clay or brick. Modern pizza ovens made from steel are the cheapest option and will reach optimum temperature more quickly but are not as fuel efficient.

Consider what you intend to cook in your oven and how many people you plan to entertain. Providing your pizza oven had been heated to its optimum temperature, it takes less than three minutes to fully cook a pizza. The Italian government specifies that certified Vera Pizza Napolenta should be cooked in 60 to 90 seconds and not a second more! When entertaining a large number of people, it’s nice to be able to cook multiple pizzas at one time so a medium or large pizza would be best.

Preparing for Your Backyard Pizza Oven Party

So you’ve got your new wood-fired pizza oven in place and you’re ready to party! But, wait. The perfect party requires a bit of planning. Here are a few steps you don’t want to skip.

Practice Cooking in Your Pizza Oven

You wouldn’t test out a new oven on Thanksgiving so don’t make your pizza party the first time you fire up your pizza oven! Starting a fire in your pizza oven and getting it to optimum temperature can take up to three hours depending on the oven’s size. See our guide to starting a fire in your pizza oven to get your process perfected long before your guests arrive.

It’s also a good idea to practice cooking a few pizzas before the big night. The first pizza of the batch is often a dud as you can’t be sure your oven is too hot or too cold until the dough tells you. Make up a batch of pita bread or a plain pizza dough base to test the temperature.

Make Your Dough

Your guests will accept nothing less than wood-fired pizza perfection. To achieve this perfection your dough has to be absolutely faultless. There are a million different recipes out there for wood-fired pizza dough but we particularly like this one from The Spruce Eats. Sticking to pizza baking masters, the Neapolitans advise, this recipe calls for brewer’s yeast, flour, salt and water with an optional teaspoon of olive oil. If you’re making the dough the traditional way it will take three hours to rise. However, if you have a bread machine you can cut that time in half.

Making your pizza dough is the most relaxing and enjoyable part of the whole process. Get messy and enjoy releasing the tension of the day into that pizza dough!

Prepare Toppings, Sides, and Seasonings

You don’t want to be slicing vegetables and grating cheese when your guests arrive. A classic Margherita pizza features nothing more than tomato sauce, buffalo-milk mozzarella and fresh basil. But for a backyard pizza party, it’s nice to offer a variety. The only limit to pizza toppings is your imagination but bear in mind that a heavier pizza takes longer to cook. Too many toppings can create a burnt crust and sloppy undercooked center. Aka pizza suicide.

In my opinion, all a backyard pizza party needs is pizza. However, you might want to prepare a couple of lighter sides like salad and slaw for when your guests have had their fill of the greatest food on earth. Seasonings such as fresh parmesan, chili flakes, and black pepper are good to have handy too.

Consider Pizza Oven Safety

Nothing ruins a party quicker than a guest being rushed to the ER. Wood-fired pizza ovens are not dangerous but whenever you’re lighting fires and cooking outdoors you should always follow safety guidelines.

It’s a nice idea to give your guests a chance to put their own topped pizza into the oven. Doing this requires placing the pizza on a peel, sliding the peel into the oven and giving it a jerk to slide the pizza into the oven. It takes a bit of skill to get this right so keep an eye on the newbies. Always use long-handled pizza oven utensils to rearrange your fire or move your food.

The pizza will be extremely hot when it comes out of the oven. The oven itself will retain heat for hours and the inner surface and opening will be hot to the touch. Keep small children and any vulnerable people away from your wood-fired pizza oven.

That’s our advice on using your wood-fired pizza oven to throw a killer party. All you need to do now is invite your guests!

There is a right way and a wrong way to start a fire. A dropped cigarette in a garbage can = wrong. The carefully planned ignition of arranged logs in a pizza oven outdoors = right!

Getting a good fire going seems like the easiest thing in the world. Anyone can throw a match on a pile of logs. But starting a fire that will burn in a pizza oven and create an even distribution of steady heat requires skill. We know all the secret tricks of the trade to start the perfect pizza oven fire and keep it burning!

Building a Fire the Right Way

When we were kids learning how to build a fire, we learned to start small. Begin with a small amount of kindling and twigs, then gradually add larger bits of timber until your fire is the size you want. But what works for warming your hands and toasting marshmallows on a camping trip, doesn’t necessarily work for a pizza oven.

Experienced pizza oven firestarters know that the bottom-to-top method of fire building is for amateurs. The top-to-bottom method is the only way to go. As recipe writer Genevieve Taylor describes, the best way to start a fire in a pizza oven is, to begin with a game of Jenga.

Start with a few decent-sized pieces of hardwood, around 3-4 inches thick and 15 inches long, and stack them. Stack two pieces one way and two pieces the opposite way, like in Jenga, using sticks of dry kindling for the top layers. Place a firelighter (see more on firelighters below) on the top of the stack and light it. Once the firelighter has caught it will light the kindling underneath and in turn light the hardwood below.

Where you build your fire depends on the type of pizza oven you have. If you can build your fire in the very center of the oven and light it safely, then go ahead and do that. If not, you can build the fire on a peel and slide it into the oven once you’ve got the firelighter going.

Expert Tip: For an efficient fire that will heat your whole pizza oven evenly, try the walled-in technique. Before you light your stack, take three logs and place one flush with each wall of your pizza oven. They should look like a short wall around your stack. Gradually, the burning stack will light the wall of logs creating an intense heat that the walls of the oven will absorb. Using the walled-in technique guarantees an evenly heated oven that stays hot for longer.

How Long Does it Take to Heat a Pizza Oven?

It can take anywhere between half an hour and an hour and a half for your pizza oven to reach its desired temperature. It depends on the size of the oven. Like cooking a pizza, the bigger it is, the longer it takes.

Pizza ovens cook your food using radiant heat. You can monitor the radiant heat present in your pizza oven by looking at the center of the oven dome. After around thirty minutes of your fire releasing smoke, a clear spot will appear at the center of the dome. That clear spot will expand until the whole oven is clear. This happens when the carbon that fills the oven reaches a high enough temperature that it turns from black to clear.

If you need to, add more wood to the sides and back of the oven to help the process along. The aim is to reach a temperature of around 700ºF. Only when the entire dome is clear is your pizza oven ready.

Expert tip: Seasoned pizza oven chefs let the oven rest a little once it reaches optimum temperature. By moving the fire to one side and allowing the oven to cool a little, you lessen the chance of burning your first pizza. Many chefs also use this period to cook simple pita bread or something similar. This gives the chef an idea of how the oven is working and what sort of temperature has been reached.

The Right Firelighter for a Wood Fired Pizza Oven

There are many different types of firelighters. When lighting a fire in a pizza oven, it’s important that you only use non-toxic firelighters. Not only is this a good choice for the environment, but it also ensures you’re not introducing any toxicity to the food you’re cooking in your pizza oven.

Most eco-friendly firelighters are made from a combination of sustainably sourced wood and wool soaked in wax. Some firestarters are made with sawdust although this can affect the taste of your food. Light your fire with a small butane torch if you have one. After all, there’s only so many times you can burn your fingertips with a match!

The Right Wood for a Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Firelighters disintegrate minutes after being lit, so as long as you choose a non-toxic firelighter, you can’t really go wrong. When choosing the wood, we need to be more specific. The fuel you use to heat your pizza oven has a huge impact on how your oven operates and the taste of your food. Here are a few tried-and-tested tips for choosing the right wood for your wood-fired pizza oven:

1. Never use charcoal. Charcoal burns hot and bright but it will not heat your pizza oven. Charcoal does not produce any flames which are one of the key factors for heating the dome of your oven evenly.
2. Never burn water. Green wood is around 50 percent water. Only use wood that has been properly dried out. Collecting your own wood and drying it out is the most cost-effective method, but bear in mind that it takes at least one, but preferably two, summers to dry properly.
3. Never use softwoods. Softwoods like cedar, yew, and redwood burn too quickly to heat your pizza oven. Before your oven is even close to the temperature it needs to be, these low-density woods are always ash. Softwoods are also full of sap and resin that, when burned, create soot in your pizza oven. The soot can turn to creosote which can ignite.
4. Choose hardwoods. Hardwoods like oak, ash or mesquite are dense and will burn long enough to get your pizza oven to that all-important temperature. Different hardwoods will impart different flavors to your food. Hickory is a smoking hardwood that gives meat, like pork and ribs, their chargrilled taste. Walnut wood also has a strong, smoky flavor that goes well with earthy foods like mushrooms and root vegetables. Wood from fruit trees like apple, pear, apricot, and nectarine gives food a subtle and slightly sweet smoky taste.

Now you know how to light your pizza oven outdoors the right way! Practice makes perfect so experiment with different woods and burning times until you know exactly what works best for your pizza oven.

The only way to celebrate a new wood-fired pizza oven is with an awesome backyard party! Before you send out the invitations and put the beer on ice, you have some preparation to take care of.

We have some great tips on how to pull off the perfect pizza party. First, you need to be in full control of your fire and your oven. Next, you need those pizzas prepped and ready for the flames. Finally, you need to know how to fire those pizzas like a pro.

With our help, you can host the pizza party of the year and make it look easy.

Why Host a Wood-Fired Pizza Party?

Communities have gathered around shared ovens for millennia. The earliest wood-fired ovens date back to Ancient Greece, where villagers and townsfolk would work together to bake bread for the week ahead.

Now it’s easier to go to the grocery store. But that doesn’t mean we can’t recreate a wood-fired baking session for the fun of it. Everyone has a BBQ. You’ve got a wood-fired pizza oven!

Gathering around a fire and channeling our inner caveman is all good fun. But your guests are definitely going to want pizza at the end of it. Pizza is one of America’s favorite foods, loved equally across gender, race and class lines.

Since each pizza is customizable, you can be sure to keep all your guests happy. Even those with food intolerances and allergies can be easily catered to with minimum effort. Everyone’s a winner!

Even when your guests have eaten as much pizza as they can, your wood-fired oven still comes in handy. Residual heat from the oven can be used to bake bread, cook potato chips or warm desserts. The oven will stay warm well into the night, keeping the party going even when the temperature drops.

Best Outdoor Pizza Oven Advice

To get the most out of your pizza oven, learn from our mistakes and follow our best advice.

1) Get Your Fire Going Before Guests Arrive

Depending on its size, it can take up to 3 hours to heat your pizza oven. You don’t want to leave chopping logs to size, building your fire or trying to get the thing lit until your guests arrive.

Fire safety is important. You need to give your fire your full attention, so get started a few hours early. We recommend firing your oven at least once before you invite guests for a pizza party. Every oven is different and it's a good idea to get acquainted with yours without an audience!

Ensure you have enough dry, ready-to-burn wood available to build a decent fire and feed it throughout the night. You’ll also need kindling and natural firestarters. For our tried-and-tested fire building technique, see our post on how to start a fire in your pizza oven outdoors.

2) Manage the Temperature of Your Oven

It’s hard to tell when to feed your oven with more wood and when to let it burn down. Dome-shaped pizza ovens offer the best heat distribution. And the more you use your oven the easier it will become to intuit how to heat it efficiently. To cook pizza, your oven needs to reach a temperature of 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s easier and quicker to let an oven cool than it is to heat it up.

When hosting a pizza party, we recommend getting your oven up to a decent 800 degrees before guests arrive. That way you can monitor the falling temperature, rather than adding more fuel and stoking the fire.

Use the oven door to increase or decrease the amount of oxygen getting to the fire. By closing the door, you can slow down the burn. An infrared thermometer is a good investment as you can pinpoint the exact temperature inside your oven without making contact.

3) Get Cooking!

You don’t have to wait for your oven to reach the optimum temperature to start cooking. Everything tastes great cooked in a wood-fired oven. To achieve the bubbly chargrilled crust of authentic Italian pizza, you have to cook it at a very high temperature. But many other foods will cook beautifully in your oven as it comes up to pizza-baking temperature.

Guests arrive at pizza parties hungry so offer them wood-fired appetizers. Simple oven trays filled with lightly oiled and seasoned potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers, and simple vegetable crudites taste amazing when charred in a wood-fired oven. You can also bake simple pita bread and cook potato chips.

Once your oven has reached the perfect 700-degree temperature you can start firing your pizzas. The smallest outdoor pizza ovens cook one pizza at a time while the largest can cook several at once. Depending on the size of your wood-fired oven, it only takes between 90 seconds and three minutes to cook a pizza. Even with a small oven, you can feed a whole party in under an hour!

How to Prepare the Perfect Pizza

Now you know how to get the most out of your pizza oven, we can turn our attention to the pizza itself. Pizzerias churn out hundreds of pizzas a day. Pizza chefs prepare fresh pizza dough, add a splash of pizza sauce and sprinkle on just the right amount of toppings. Into the oven it goes and out comes perfection. It all looks so easy.

These people are professionals! In an attempt to imitate these professionals, we’ve learned a thing or two about preparing the perfect pizza:

Make Your Dough Early. The success of your dough defines the success of your pizza. Don’t buy frozen dough or follow a no-rise recipe. Creating authentic, Italian pizza dough takes a few hours but isn’t labor-intensive. And it’s totally worth it. We like this simple recipe from the NY Times but it only makes two 12 inch pizzas. You’ll need a lot more than that for your party!

Prepare Your Rounds. Even rolling or stretching the pizza dough into rounds takes away from valuable hosting time. Have your rounds ready to go before the party starts by laying them flat on top of each other with a piece of baking parchment between them.

Go Easy on the Toppings. Enthusiastic new pizza chefs make this mistake all the time. You want to create a flavor sensation with your pizza so it's tempting to add a whole host of toppings. But the more toppings you add, the longer it will take the center of your pizza to cook. Too many toppings can lead to a pizza that’s burnt on the edges and soggy in the middle.

Now you know how to handle your new wood-fired pizza oven and prepare the perfect pizzas, your celebration is guaranteed to go off without a hitch. Cheers!

If you own a restaurant, cafe, bakery or mobile kitchen and want to reinvigorate your business, a commercial wood-fired pizza oven may be just the ticket.

Wood-fired pizza is having a moment. Mediocre electric oven cooked pizza simply won’t cut it with today’s diners. Only the most authentic, bubbly-crusted, Italian-style pizza will do. And you don’t need decades of experience in a pizzeria to pull it off!

Pizza is one of the simplest and easily customized dishes on the American menu. Even better, you can cook a pizza in a wood-fired oven in around 90 seconds. Imagine how many pizzas you could sell in a day!

There are many types of commercial pizza oven available. We believe wood-fired is the only way to go and here’s why.

Different Types of Restaurant Pizza Oven

There are Three main types of commercial pizza oven available on the market. Each oven has pros and cons when it comes to cost, performance, and efficiency. Here’s our take on what each of the three main types of pizza oven has to offer:

1) Convection Oven

Most modern kitchens come fitted with some type of convection oven. Conventional ovens have one heat source. Heat usually radiated from one place, either gas-powered flames at the bottom of the oven or an electric heating element. In a convection oven, a fan circulates this heat all around the oven. Convection ovens radiate heat from all directions but these ovens never get especially hot. This makes convection ovens a good choice for keeping energy bills low. However, as a perfectly crisp pizza must be cooked quickly in a hot oven, convection ovens are not recommended.

• Max Temp - around 460 degrees Fahrenheit
• Pizza Cooking Time - Around 10 minutes
• Heat Retention - Poor

2) Conveyor Oven

Conveyor ovens drag food through a hot chamber on a conveyor belt. These ovens come in freestanding and countertop varieties. Large freestanding units cook food using forced air heating while smaller countertop units use radiant heat. Both varieties cook food fairly slowly, which makes them unsuitable for use in busy restaurants or pizzerias.

• Max Temp - around 500 degrees Fahrenheit
• Pizza Cooking Time - 6 to 8 minutes
• Heat Retention - Good

3) Wood-Fired Brick Oven

The history of wood-fired brick ovens goes back to ancient times. Evidence of brick ovens for baking bread and roasting meat can be linked to almost all of earth’s ancient civilizations.

Brick ovens have experienced something of a comeback in recent years. Part of a trend toward traditional cooking styles, restaurants are installing wood-fired ovens to entice new diners.

To cook incredible pizza using the same method Italians have used for centuries, invest in a commercial dome-shaped wood-fired oven. The dome shape of the oven traps the heat generated by the wood-fuelled fire. The heat is absorbed by the bricks and radiated back into the center of the oven. Food bakes rapidly and is infused with the smoky, earthy taste of burning wood.

• Max Temp - Up to 1000 degreed Fahrenheit
• Pizza Cooking Time - 90 seconds to 3 minutes
• Heat retention -- Very good

Commercial Wood-Fired Brick Ovens Offer Superior Flavor

Pizza cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven tastes better than pizza cooked in any other type of oven. The extreme radiant heat generated by a brick pizza oven cooks the pizza from the top and the bottom at the same time.

As soon as the raw pizza dough hits the searing-hot stone base of the oven, it develops a perfectly crisp base. The crust of the pizza puffs up while the toppings are grilled from above. The fire that’s still crackling away inside the oven gives the pizza a smoky flavor that cannot be replicated in a gas or electric oven. No way, no how.

Wood-fired brick ovens have been tried and tested over the course of centuries and there is simply no better way to cook a pizza. But don’t just take our word for it. A Russian physicist living in Rome conducted a scientific analysis of pizza-making. His findings? Yes, wood-fired ovens are absolutely superior to electric ones.

A Commerical Wood-Fired Oven Sets Your Restaurant Apart

Most cities have a number of pizzerias competing for the largest slice of the pizza-eating public. Installing a wood-fired oven in your restaurant sets your business apart from the competition.

A wood-fired oven appeals to everyone. From couples looking for a romantic ambiance and parents looking for somewhere different to take the kids, the novelty of a wood-fired oven appeals to all. You can even install your new oven in such a way that it becomes the focal point of your restaurant.

By installing a wood-fired brick oven in your restaurant you can churn out authentic, Italian-style pizzas all day long. But you can use your new oven for much more than pizza. Wood-fired ovens are a great way to cook all kinds of foods including bread, cakes, desserts, meat, vegetables, and fish. Wood-fired T-bone steak; blackened whole snapper fish; artisanal rye loaf or bundt cake. The only limit to what you can cook in a wood-fired oven is your chef’s ambition.

A Commerical Wood-Fired Pizza Oven is an Affordable Investment

Commercial wood-fired pizza ovens are more affordable than you might think. There is a range of different types and sizes available to suit your budget. You don’t have to spend tens of thousands on a cavernous pizza oven that takes up your entire restaurant.

Many suppliers sell commerical pizza oven kits. The ovens stick faithfully to the traditional Neopolitan design but add modern materials for better efficiency. Commercial pizza oven kits come in pieces or fully-assembled. You can choose what works best for your business and your handyman skill level!

Smaller businesses, like cafes or bakeries, or restaurants that want to tap into the street food market can also go mobile. Mobile pizza ovens come as trailers you can attach to a car or trucks and are heated by wood fire or gas.

Selling pizza and other wood-fired foods on the go can be incredibly lucrative. Night food markets, university campuses, outdoor events, the possibilities are endless when you take your food business on the road.

A commercial wood-fired pizza oven is the only way to go. Add authentic wood-fired pizza to your menu and watch the customers come running!

Getting the best out of your wood-fired pizza oven is a process of trial and error. We’re taught as children that fire is incredibly dangerous. Even a carelessly dropped cigarette could ignite a blaze that will kill us all.

In reality, getting a good fire going, especially in damp conditions, can be a challenge. Once lit, you have to continue building your fire until it heats your oven to optimum temperature. If you can’t reach the optimum temperature you can’t fire a perfect and delicious pizza masterpiece.

Practice makes perfect but no one wants to stay in the amateur leagues for long. Follow these 5 hot tips for working your wood-fired pizza oven and you’ll reach pro status sooner than you think!

1) Go For a Dome-Shaped Pizza Oven Kit

You can buy wood-fired pizza ovens that are barrel-shaped or dome-shaped. Dome-shaped ovens are the only way to go. The first Italian pizza ovens were dome-shaped and been baking superior pizza for centuries.

A perfect dome-shaped oven ensures even heat distribution. This is key if you want to achieve an evenly-baked pizza. A true dome shape will also generate a higher cooking temperature than a barrel-shaped oven. Only ovens with a true dome shape will give your pizza the beautifully puffed-up and charred crust that sets an amazing pizza apart from a mediocre one.

2) Make a Pizza Oven Fire the Right Way

There is a right way and a wrong way to make a fire in your wood-fired pizza oven. We recommend the box method of fire-building. Arrange your logs in a Jenga-like box. Place two or three logs (depending on the size of your oven) in a row then build another row on top, facing the opposite way. Stack two or three layers like this, then place some kindling and a natural firelighter on top.

If you have a large pizza oven it’s also a good idea to place three logs around the stack. Like a short wall that runs around the perimeter of the oven. These logs will catch last and ensure a wide fire that will heat the whole oven.

3) Use the Right Fuel for Your Wood-Fired Pizza Oven

You can’t burn any old wood in your pizza oven. Advice varies on the best type of wood for use in a pizza oven but we recommend ready to burn hardwoods like oak, hickory, mesquite, or wood from fruit trees like apple, pear or apricot.

It’s tempting to use softwood or cheap processed wood like MDF. These woods will burn far too quickly and will produce a lot of smoke, which can coat the inside of your oven in harmful deposits.

Avoid green wood at all costs. Green wood is any wood that has recently been felled. Wood is between 80 and 90% water. Burning green wood creates a lot of steam and smoke that will not heat your pizza oven efficiently. Too much smoke creates creosote build-ups on the inside of your oven that will not only taint your oven baked food but are highly combustible!

Ready to burn wood has already been dried. This will burn hot and long enough to get your pizza oven to optimum temperature.

4) Do Your Pizza Preparation

The key to a baking a premium wood-fired pizza with minimum effort is preparation! Do these four things before you start cooking and you’ll be minutes away from a freshly baked pizza.

Heat Your Oven Early

Depending on the size of your pizza oven it can take up to three hours to reach optimum temperature. If there are environmental issues to contend with, like damp weather, it can take even longer. To ensure your pizza oven is ready to go when you are, light your fire a few hours before you intend to cook. It’s easier to maintain the temperature of your oven than increase it. Once you have your oven up to the right temperature, 700 F for most ovens, you can monitor it and add more fuel when necessary.

Make Your Dough Early

Pizza dough can also take around three hours to rise. A basic Neopolitan recipe calls for flour, yeast, salt, water and an optional teaspoon of olive oil. Creating the dough is simple but the rise takes a bit of care. Here’s a nice crowd-sourced pizza dough recipe. Although this recipe describes cooking the pizza in an oven, the same recipe applies for a wood-fired pizza oven. This recipe works for four large pizzas. Split the dough into 6 for smaller pizzas or to feed more people, double (or even triple!) the measurements.

Prepare the toppings

You don’t want to be preparing a tomato sauce or slicing mozzarella while trying to maintain the temperature of your pizza oven. Get your toppings sliced and diced ahead of time!

Get your utensils ready

You should only ever use long-handled utensils specifically designed for use in wood-fired ovens. Pizza ovens reach incredibly high temperatures. Make sure your utensils are clean and within reach before you put your pizza in the oven.

5) Experiment With Your Wood-Fired Pizza Oven

You can use a wood-fired pizza oven for more than cooking the perfect pizza. Outdoor pizza ovens come in a variety of sizes, both assembled and residential build-it-yourself kits.

The largest residential pizza ovens can accommodate several pizzas at one time. Or you can experiment. Nothing says special occasion like an entire suckling pig, lamb or game animal. A large pizza oven can accommodate a whole animal and will infuse the chosen meat with a smoky, wood-fired taste you can’t get any other way.

It takes minutes to cook a pizza in an oven that has reached optimum temperature. Use that heat to cook a few steaks, roast a whole fish or grill a tray of vegetables. You can also bake bread in your pizza oven, cakes, cookies, and other desserts.

Now you know how to use your wood-fired pizza oven like a pro, the culinary possibilities are endless!

Residential pizza ovens are now as easy to buy and install as garden furniture or a BBQ so we can all cook authentic Neapolitan-style pizza at home. These pizza ovens reach temperatures well above your standard kitchen oven. And it’s this intense heat that gives Italian stone-baked pizza its airy, moist base and crisp, charred crust.

There are dozens of affordable, efficient and beautifully-designed residential pizza ovens on the market. Here are a few questions to help you choose the perfect pizza oven for your home.

1) Do You Want to Cook Pizza Inside or Outside?

The most important question to ask yourself when choosing a pizza oven is “inside or outside?” Do you want to cook delicious pizzas in the comfort of your kitchen or do you want the freedom of cooking with fire in your backyard?

Installing a wood-burning pizza oven in your kitchen means you can use it all year round, even in the dead of winter. But indoor pizza ovens often have to be custom built to fit the space in your home. This makes them an expensive option. You also have to ensure your oven is properly ventilated, another big space stealer. You can go for a gas or electric oven, of course. But where’s the fun in that!

Outdoor pizza ovens are easier to install and can be purchased as modular kits. Providing you’re able to do some basic building work (or know someone who is!) you can build the oven yourself. This cuts out the need for a contractor which will save you a lot of money.

The Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens

The best outdoor pizza ovens are undoubtedly Neapolitan-style brick ovens. These dome-shaped ovens were first introduced by the Ancient Greeks to bake bread. Ancient civilizations recognized the most efficient way to cook food was using a clay or brick oven, heated by a wood fire. The fire heated the dome of the oven to such a high temperature that the oven walls became its own heat source. Using radiant heat, traditional ovens are efficient, retain heat for a long time and can cook a pizza in 90 seconds!

2) What Sort of Fuel Do You Prefer?

Residential pizza ovens are fuelled by electricity, gas or wood. The kind of fuel you choose will affect your oven’s efficiency, design, and impact on the environment. And let’s not forget taste!

An electric pizza oven is a safe choice for indoors. Electric convection ovens feature a fan that circulates hot air around your oven. A good quality electric oven will heat up quickly but does not retain heat once switched off.

Gas ovens can reach cooking temperature even faster than electric ones but again, will not retain heat. Neither gas nor electric ovens have any impact on flavor.

Wood-fired ovens take a long time to heat up but do retain heat. They also offer superior flavor. For a true Italian style pizza with a crisp base and charred crust, there is no alternative to a wood-fired oven.

Wood-fired ovens infuse your food with a smoky taste that cannot be replicated in a gas or electric model. And because these ovens don’t require access to gas or electricity, you can install one anywhere you like!

The Most Environmentally-Friendly Pizza Ovens

Cooking accounts for only 4.5 percent of household energy use in the U.S. But when the aim is to reduce our carbon footprint, every little bit helps.

Wood-burning ovens can have a greater impact on the environment than gas or electric ovens. The issue is the smoke.

A 2016 study conducted in São Paolo, Brazil found that the city’s love of wood-fired pizza and meat was contributing to alarming levels of deforestation and air pollution. However, most modern wood-burning ovens are fitted with particle filters that stop the most harmful emissions polluting the air.

You can also choose to purchase energy-efficient and eco-friendly wood. Wood-burning ovens are fuelled by a renewable energy source.

Both electric and gas ovens rely on fossil fuels. Gas ovens are the most efficient as they provide instant heat, unlike electric ovens that can take a long time to heat up. As a result, the most environmentally-friendly pizza ovens are those that use a combination of gas and wood. These dual fuel source ovens use less wood and create less smoke but still gives the pizza a smoky taste and crisp yet light texture.

3) How Much Space do you Have for a Residential Pizza Oven?

Size and space are two major considerations when choosing a residential pizza oven. The amount of food you intend you cook will determine the size of oven you need.

If you will mostly be cooking for yourself and one other person, the smallest sized oven will suffice. If you have huge backyard pizza parties in mind, the bigger your pizza oven, the better! A residential pizza oven is a long-term investment so consider how your needs might change over the next decade or so.

If you’ve chosen to buy an indoor pizza oven, you need to consider the space you have available. The oven has to fit comfortably with room to move around it and there must be enough space to install a chimney.

If you’ve chosen an outdoor pizza oven, space isn’t as much of an issue. Providing you can easily access your oven from your kitchen and your dining area, you can put an outdoor oven wherever you like! Patios and decks are great for pizza ovens as they offer a solid, flat foundation close to the house.

The Best Small Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens

Pizza baked in a small wood-fired pizza oven will taste far superior to anything baked in a gas or electric equivalent. These small ovens can accommodate one pizza at a time. When you consider it takes only 1.5 to 3 minutes to cook a pizza, that doesn’t seem so bad!

Small wood-fired pizza ovens come in a huge variety of shapes and materials. Stainless steel ovens with a stone floor are popular and often fuelled by a mixture of propane gas and wood. These ovens are largely portable and can be purchased for less than $1,000. This article from Serious Eats outlines three of the best.

For our money, there’s only one style of wood-fired pizza oven worth investing in, a traditional Neapolitan oven. These dome-shaped brick ovens use a design that’s been tried and tested over centuries. Available already-assembled or as oven kits you can build yourself, Neapolitan pizza ovens are as attractive as they are efficient. A small oven may set you back around $1,500 but could last you a lifetime with no maintenance needed.

The perfect residential pizza oven is the one that suits your needs best. Authentic Italian pizza baked at home is only one delivery away!

In today’s competitive real estate market, homeowners are doing everything they can to add value to their homes - are you? It takes a lot more than simply renovating your kitchen and bathroom; you need to give your home a perk or advantage that others in your market do not have. This makes your property more appealing to buyers, setting it apart from others, and giving them a reason to put in an offer that is equal to, or higher than your asking price.
Installing an outdoor pizza oven is the perfect way to entice buyers while adding to the value of your home.

Unique
While outdoor pizza ovens are becoming increasingly popular, other homes in your market are unlikely to have them. Adding one to your home before, or shortly after you
decide to sell is a great way to give your home appeal above all others. Buyers are constantly looking for a unique touch; something that makes the home they want to buy more special than others. Pizza oven kits are a great way to add just that. 

Add to Backyard Appeal
The biggest advantage of installing outdoor pizza ovens is the appeal they add to your backyard. Those who entertain frequently are always looking for new and interesting ways to add to their yard’s charm. An outdoor pizza oven is a fantastic choice! This gives your yard something those who love to entertain may find incredibly useful. You can up the appeal factor even further by placing the oven in a location in your yard that lends itself well to social gatherings, such as on a deck or on the lawn surrounded by chairs. Or, include it in a new patio design. 


Include it in your décor to make it look as though it naturally belongs in your yard. Buyers want to envision themselves in the homes they view, and nothing helps make a person feel more at home than imagining all of the entertaining they may do with friends and family. Installing an outdoor pizza oven also adds to the enjoyment you get from your home while you are still living there. You yourself can entertain friends and family, host pizza nights for your kids and their friends, or add a delicious pizza to your outdoor family game night plans.


Having memories like these impacts how you treat your home, which in turn does impact its value. Repeated studies show that individuals who loved their old homes receive a higher value when they go to sell, than those who disliked where they lived, or simply did not care.

Practical
You can assemble your own pizza oven to custom-fit inside your newly renovated patio, or you can strategically place a pre-assembled kit. Buying a fully assembled pizza oven kit can save you time, especially if you do not have the budget to do a full patio renovation. You can buy an assembled pizza oven that suits your space, and which compliments your landscape.
Other backyard improvements, such as adding figurines or expensive flowers, may not pay off in the end, because they are not practical, and hard to upkeep. A pizza oven, however, is universally appealing thanks to its primary use: making food.


Homeowners looking to add value to their properties should strongly consider outdoor pizza ovens as the perfect solution. Visit Californo to buy one of our pizza oven kits today. These kits come with everything you need to build a stunning and functional oven, giving your home the unique appeal you need to get it off the market fast, at a price that appeals to you.

Pizza is an incredibly diverse food. Simply by tweaking the crust the toppings, and the sauce, you can change its taste and presentation entirely!  Most people already know that changing the sauce makes a big impact on the taste of a pizza, but few people know that the way a pizza crust is made and cooked makes just as much of an impact! It is almost universally agreed that pizza made in a wood fired oven tastes infinitely better than any other method of cooking your pizza. We investigate a few reasons why this is the case.

Hotter Cooking Temperature


The biggest advantage of using a pizza oven is that it generates more heat. This results in a hotter cooking temperature and faster cooking time, while still staying completely safe for you and your family. The heat from the wood fire is absorbed by the walls, spreading it around the inside of the oven evenly. Cooking time is also decreased because of better heat distribution in the oven. With some ovens, you can easily cook an entire large pizza in less than three minutes. Families hosting large gatherings, or restaurants with high volume orders can, benefit from this rapid cooking time.

Better, Crispier Crust and Toppings

Since the pizza is cooked at such a high temperature, the outside of the pizza becomes crispy quite quickly. Any moisture remaining in the dough and the toppings becomes sealed inside, leading to crispy and flaky taste. It also prevents the dough from becoming soggy, leading to a much better taste. The taste of the toppings is also greatly improved by this method. Since the heat seals off the moisture, pizzas made in woodfired ovens are absorb less grease.

In addition, fast cooking times preserves many of the nutrients in the toppings. Those who include a lot of vegetables on their pizza may notice improved health benefits from eating pizza made this way, as opposed to baking it in a traditional oven. The cheese and sauce are also affected by this cooking method, absorbing some of the smoky flavor from the wood fire, creating a much better taste.

Unique Flavor

There is a unique, smoky flavor that all food made in a woodfired oven picks up. This gives your pizza a taste of authenticity and sophistication, far from the grease and bland flavors characterized by making grocery store instant pizza in a traditional oven. The lack of grease also lends itself to a better, more improved flavor.

Another addition to your pizza crust which can also make a big difference in flavor, is oil. Various cooking oils have different flavors, and some oils have a higher heat tolerance than others. Part of any cooking process can ruin the flavor of fragile oils that have a low temperature tolerance. One example of this is olive oil. For people who want to enjoy the natural flavor of olive oil on their pizza, best practice is to drizzle the oil on the pizza toppings and crust edges after it comes out of the pizza oven, and immediately prior to serving. The olive oil will be warmed, but not scorched.

Additionally, various types of wood create different flavors in your pizza. For example, mesquite produces a distinct smoky taste when used. Once you get your outdoor pizza oven, you can start experimenting with heat sources and the impact they have on the pizza’s final taste.

Learning more about why the woodfired method makes better pizza may convince you to install an outdoor pizza oven on your property. By visiting Californo you can view our range of outdoor pizza ovens and pizza oven kits, ready to be installed in your backyard. These ovens are a great way to cook the perfect pizza when entertaining friends and family. Thanks to its great taste, your pizza is sure to impress every time!

What has been your experience with wood fired pizza?

You’ve taken the time to find the best firewood to use in your wood-fired oven Great! But what do you do with it until it’s time to use it? When it comes to firewood, proper storage is key. Even the best firewood will fail unless it’s stored properly and kept dry.

Firewood sheds are the best way to store your firewood. They are essential for keeping your wood dry. You can easily build your own firewood shed in any size you desire so that it works with your outdoor space! Here are some things to keep in mind when making your own firewood shed. 

Where Should You Build Your Firewood Shed?

Even the best firewood won’t work unless it’s kept properly dry.

If you plan on using the firewood primarily for cooking, build your shed close to your oven – but not too close! However, if you plan on using firewood as the main fuel for heating your home during the winter months, then you might want to consider building your shed closer to your home.

 * PRO-TIP: A lean-to build is a popular choice for building firewood sheds right next to the back or side door of your home.

What Materials Should You Use?
Teak is a great rot-resistant wood to use for outdoor projects.

Your firewood shed needs to be weather resistant. As such, when choosing the materials for your firewood shed, it is important to consider what woods are most resistant to rot and what finishes can be used to preserve your building materials. Alternatively, consider using synthetic materials to build your firewood shed, such as PVC and wood-plastic composites. Some synthetic materials are even durable enough to be used for the framing components of your firewood shed.

How Should You Build Your Firewood Shed?

Your firewood shed doesn’t need to be fancy – just functional.

* NOTE: Depending on where you live, you may need a permit to build your firewood shed. Since different states have different building codes, make sure to check if you need a permit

Your firewood shed doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be functional. Not only must your shed be able to shelter your wood from the rain and snow, it must also be ventilated enough to allow your wood to dry out and season properly. Your shed can be as simple as a covered structure that will keep your wood organized and protect it from getting wet. Just make sure that your shed can stand up to the elements.

Four Important Things to Keep in Mind When Building a Firewood Shed

1. An elevated foundation will help keep your wood dry
2. Lean-to builds are a popular choice for firewood sheds. If you choose to go this route, make sure than any open sides of the shed are protected from the wind and rain.
3. A slanted roof will keep rain and snow from dripping into your shed and soaking your firewood. Plus, it will save you from having to shovel off a heavily snow-ladened roof top.
4. Make sure that water does not collect under your shed, as this can affect your wood. Have the ground surrounding your firewood shed slant away from the shed in order to prevent this.

Are you thinking of trying your hand at building your own firewood shed? Do you have any more tips in mind? We’d love to hear from you!

Pizza ovens are incredibly versatile. So, it makes no sense to limit yourself to ‘just’ making perfect, mouthwatering pizzas. There exists a whole world of recipes and dishes for you to consider cooking in your wood-fired oven!

Here is Californo’s list of top food ideas to try baking in your pizza oven.

• Potato Chips
  Despite being easy to make, potato chips are some of the most indulgently delicious foods you can make for your family. Simply throw your potato slices into a bowl of a good high-heat oil and toss to completely cover each piece of potato. Add salt to taste and toss again. Next, evenly distribute the potato slices onto a high heat resistant pan. It’s okay if they overlap each other or are piled slightly since you will toss them and move them around during cooking time. Place the pan into the baking chamber of your wood fired oven. Make sure to adjust your cooking time based on the thickness of your potato skin slices. Keep an eye on them and toss them a few times to evenly brown and crisp each piece. 

• Focaccia Bread

Focaccia is a simple bread that everyone loves. You can enjoy it plain, or tear out a chunk of the bread and dip it in balsamic vinegar mixed with olive oil.

Anne Burrell shares an excellent recipe for focaccia bread in her Food Network show, Secrets Of A Restaurant Chef.

• Quesadillas

For an easy way to make multiple quesadillas, use your pizza oven! The wood will give your quesadillas a richer flavor.

• Apple Cobbler

Apple cobbler is a dish you can make in any oven. But in your pizza oven, you’ll get cobbler with a crisp, perfectly cooked exterior, as well as sweet, subtly smoky flavors.

• Dutch Pancake

Dutch pancakes are usually yummy, but they take on an entirely different quality when made in a pizza oven. With deeper flavors and pancake edges that curl within seconds of entering the baking chamber, you’ll never want to go back to using a conventional oven again.

• Rock Cakes

Rock cakes are a type of small fruit cake. They are called rock cakes not because they are rock-hard, but because their rough surfaces make them look a bit like rocks. Rock cakes are a traditional British teatime treat that became popular during WWII because they require fewer eggs and less sugar to make.

Today, rock cakes are making a comeback. And they taste even better when made in a wood fired oven! BBC has a great rock cake recipe that can be done in just under an hour.

• Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies made in regular ovens often have edges that are too well done or even burnt. In a wood fired oven, the heat is distributed evenly throughout the baking chamber, so the edges are flawlessly crisped, leaving a perfectly cooked gooey cookie center. 

• Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls made in wood fired ovens have a richer taste. If you struggle to find a use for your leftover pizza dough, this is the solution.

This overnight cinnamon roll recipe from Alton Brown is great to make in your wood fired oven.

• Chicken Strips

Chicken strips are a humble, but surprisingly delicious, go-to finger food. With just a little olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs, and basil, you can get the most delicious chicken strips you’ve ever had, using your wood fired oven. 

• Cheese Fondue

Using your wood fired pizza oven will impart a subtly smoky flavor to your cheese fondue. You get an additional dimension of flavor that could never be replicated in your typical fondue maker.

What have you tried baking in your pizza oven? We’d love to hear from you!

Food trucks have become increasingly popular in the last few years. But success in the food truck industry isn’t as easy as just opening up your truck’s service window. As with most things, success requires effort and a good amount of planning.

Here are some tips for a successful mobile pizza business

• Develop Your Brand 

The success of your mobile pizza food truck depends on your ability to successfully establish your brand. In order to set yourself apart from the competition, you need to build a strong identity for your food truck business, and continue to refine it as you go along. If you don’t distinguish yourself, any potential customers will get bored quickly.

Don’t waste time by trying to attract every single customer – that’s an impossible task. Niching down is the way to success. Establish your target market and cater your style of food and aesthetic to that market.

Don’t make the mistake of overextending your menu, either. Focus on food quality; not quantity. Keep your menu as simple as possible with just 4-6 items. Ideally, these items are just different versions of the same basic food. This will help you keep your menu brand-friendly.

• Know Your Customer
  
  As a business owner, it’s important to keep abreast of the trends in your target market. Ideally, you’ve done your market research and established demand for your cuisine, as well as your ability to capture a share of the market long before you even open your business. Once you’re in business, you should continue to make informed business changes based on consumer demand.

• Write A Business Plan 
  Many business owners skip this step, but you just can’t underestimate the importance of a business plan.

A business plan is basically a written guide for how to achieve your business goals. As far as your food truck is concerned, your business plan is your road map to success. Your business plan will help you plan your finances, size up your competition, and formulate an effective marketing strategy. If you don’t know how to make one, Bplans has a great guide on how to write business plans.

Businesses that don’t have a business plan are generally less efficient. They are likely to have stunted growth, overspend, and reach fewer customers within their target markets.

• Set A Side A Year’s Worth Of Business Capital 

Because opening a food truck requires less capital than opening a restaurant, many would-be food truck owners try to enter the industry without enough money to keep their business afloat while they try to establish themselves in the market. In fact, many businesses fail because they don’t plan ahead with enough capital. Plus, you never know when you will be faced with an unexpected emergency. Therefore, it’s a good idea to save up enough capital to sustain your business for at least one year. 

• Hire Carefully And Train Wisely

Bad service kills businesses. When you hire employees, you are also choosing ambassadors for your business. As such, it is imperative that you invest a substantial amount of time in the hiring and training of your employees. Bad, poorly trained staff can ruin a business, and this is especially true in the food truck industry.

 Keep Your Mobile Pizza Food Truck Service Consistent

• All your customers should get the same quality of service, regardless of who is in the kitchen that day. Consistency is one of the most important factors when it comes to establishing a regular customer base and preserving your brand identity. Keeping things consistent could be as simple as formalizing your recipes to minimize food waste.

• Get the Best Mobile Pizza Oven For Your Pizza Trailer or Food Truck

Californo Pizza Ovens (https://www.californo.co/ ) are the best you can buy! Californo mobile pizza ovens have been used by the most celebrated chefs, caterers and restaurants for more than 12 years. They are perfectly designed for food truck or pizza trailer installation and use.

Are you thinking of opening a mobile pizza food truck? We have all the necessary components We’d love to hear from you!

Sheds are functional. They hold your firewood and protect it from getting damp in the rain. They can even store your garden equipment and tools, and if they are big enough, can even give you a small home away from home to retreat to at the end of the day. But just because they are functional doesn’t mean they can’t – or shouldn’t – be pretty. A beautiful shed can really add to your garden and enhance the time you spend there. 

Spruce up your shed with these creative landscaping ideas!

• Create A Walkway To Your Shed
  
  

Creating a walkway should be at the top of your list when considering landscaping design ideas for your shed. It can bring truly stunning results, while still being one of the easier landscaping options to implement. 

There are several ways you can create a beautiful walkway to your shed. One option is to create a walkway path using large rocks in interesting shapes for stepping stones. Alternatively, you can create your own stepping stone design using a walkway mold. You can also choose to line your path with flowers. You can plant flowers directly into the ground, or use ceramic flowers to place them along the path – lilacs are a great option for this. You can leave the dirt between the flowers visible, or you can fill the path with river rocks or wood chimps. 

• Add A Lattice To The Sides Of Your Firewood Shed For Planting Climbers
  
  

Planting climbers can be an easy way to beautify the area around your firewood shed. Simply add a lattice to either side of the shed, plant a climber, and wait for it to grow and climb up the lattice. You can choose to plant a simple vine, or go with a pretty flowering climber. 

Here are some good options for climbers to plant around your shed

• Joseph’s Coat Rose Bush
• Honeysuckle
• Clematis
• Morning Glory – Caution: this plant can sometimes turn invasive 
• Climbing Hydrangea
• Jasmine
• Chocolate Vine

• Install A Patio For Your Firewood Shed 

Depending on the design of your shed, you might want to consider adding a patio. Patios can add more design and landscaping flexibility to your outside shed area, while giving you a place to sit and unwind. With a patio, you can turn your shed into a place where you can spend afternoons lounging with a good book and some friends. It can even be a great place to relax after a hard day of work!

Consider planting some flowers around your patio. A small table set can also be a beautiful – and functional – accent.

• Add More Flowers 

If your shed has windows, adding flowers can be a nice touch. Place some flower boxes on the windows of your shed and plant flowers for a touch of color.

Another, quirkier, option is to liven up your shed by planting multicolored flowers in a cute wheelbarrow for a rustic touch. 

However, think about how you are going to keep all of those flowers watered. Is there a hose water tap nearby your shed? Perhaps you could install an automatic watering system to rely on. Especially if you are going away on a trip, when you return, your beautifully landscaped firewood shed surroundings will still be blooming!

Have you tried any of these landscaping ideas? Do you have any tips for landscaping around firewood sheds? We’d love to hear from you!