Wood Fired Pizza Oven

It was "Passport Weekend" in the wine country. An event that allows guests to purchase a ticket and roam between participating wineries. The event showcased wines with appropriate food pairings. The Chef chose to cook pizzas for our event. It was a warm summer day....perfect for a wood burning pizza oven on the back deck of the winey, with a sweeping view of Napa valley.

The Chef loves using the wood fired pizza oven to create not only pizzas, but rustic Italian dishes. However, today was all about pizza. We were a team of 4 plus the dishwasher who also helped when it was busy (our pizza team pictured above). The dough and the mise en place for the pizzas had been prepped the day before, leaving only assemblage and cooking for today.

Here are some interesting facts about the oven. This particular brand costs about $15,000. There is a specific method of building a wood pile to start the fire inside the oven. Once started, the wood is moved around the oven to heat all sides of the interior, and then eventually moved off to one side. With the wood on one side, the flames actually arc from one side to the other around the interior of the ceiling.
The temperatures reach between 700-1000 Deg. F. The stone "floor" of the interior is then wiped clean with a wet towel, and you are good to go. The efficiency and heat generation is fantastic. It only takes a few minutes to cook a pizza in the oven.

We made 4 hot pizzas and one cold flat bread pizza:

1. Basic tomato sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella

2. Roasted garlic paste, braised chanterelle, black trumpet mushroom, and 5 mixed cheese

3. Herbed ricotta, asparagus, pancetta, and mozzarella (pictured above)

4. Gluten free dough version
5. Vegetarian pizza
6. Flat bread, topped with herbed creme fraiche, smoked salmon, hard boiled quail eggs, pickled red onion slices, and tarragon.


We made over 200 pizzas in 5 hours. It was a great venue being outdoors, working in a beautiful environment, surrounded by some very happy people. I never worked in a pizza place as a kid, so it was nice to work with dough and the oven.

We received positive comments all day regarding the flavor of the dough. The Chef has kept a "mother dough" alive for 5 years. This is the source of all the dough made at the winery thus preserving that taste character that makes it uniquely flavorful.