Forno Bravo Wood Fired Ovens
A number of months ago, we were contacted by the President of Forno Bravo, a company which imports Italian wood fired ovens for the house and garden, caterers, bakeries and restaurants. Given the number of requests for information about wood fired ovens, and the seeming interest in them, we have spent time exploring what Forno Bravo has to offer.
Their ovens are crafted by hand in Italy using traditional methods. They state that high quality refractory materials are used in manufacturing these ovens. Once purchased, ovens are shipped to a home, or business, from their warehouse in Northern California. A range of oven types and sizes are offered. Stands for these wood fire ovens are also available. Additionally they offer a wide variety of accessories and tools, as well as a great deal of technical assistance and support. Anyone purchasing an oven from Forno Bravo must deal directly with them. We make no guarantees nor representations relative to anything that this manufacturer of wood fired ovens stipulates in any and all company literature, or in the ovens that they manufacture.
Forno Bravo has offered a 5% discount on any oven bought as a result of seeing the products or information about these ovens, on The Artisan. Please note that The Artisan accepts no remuneration for this service.
The Artisan is very careful relative to featuring products on our site. It was only after quite a bit of correspondence with James, the President of the company, that we decided that discussing these ovens would be of interest, and perhaps assistance, to those visitors who either have a wood fired oven, or who would like to explore the possibility of obtaining one.
The Forno Bravo web site is easy to navigate and discusses Residential and Commercial wood fired ovens, Pricing, Cooking Ideas and Resources. Additionally, the site includes a free set of plans for their Pompeii Oven, a replica of an ancient oven found in Pompeii, Italy. The Pompeii set of plans are for building a traditional round, dome shaped Italian pizza and bread oven. The oven is built using fire bricks and other materials found at stores such as Home Depot or masonry supply stores. A materials list is provided, as well as photos of some of the steps that would be taken when building this oven. The plans are freely accessible on the web site, and are found on the bottom of the Home Page. The only caveat relative to using these plans is a request by Forno Bravo that those who use the plans do not re-publish the material, or use it for any purpose other than building their own oven.
In discussing the use of wood fired ovens Forno Bravo, a number of ideas were suggested that sound interesting. One is to develop a sister site to Forno Bravo's site - that lists as many wood fired pizza ovens/restaurants as can be found, and then makes that list available at no cost to anyone. Thus, if one were traveling, and felt the need for a pizza, and a wood fired oven pizza at that, that information would be available. Initially, the info would be for the United States, but could eventually include pizza restaurants in Italy. One interesting aspect would be to have visitors to Forno Bravo send names and addresses that would be added to the Pizzeria database. Of course, having a wood fired oven does not guarantee that either pizze or anything else cooked in the oven will automatically be good. That is a matter of how seriously the cook/pizzaiolo takes his or her task, coupled to the use of high quality ingredients.
Forno Bravo
is not the only company that manufactures wood fired ovens. In
fact we can think of two others that we have visited. They, however have
not contacted us to
work
with them in bringing information and products to visitors to
The Artisan. Were they to do so, we
would provide that information for comparison. We believe that competition
is necessary for the maintenance of high quality, fair prices,and design
considerations.
An alternative to purchasing a pre-made wood fired oven would be to have it built to your specifications by a mason knowledgeable in this area. That is actually how The Artisan's wood fired oven was built. We have included a photo of our oven at left. Additionally we have uploaded a recipe for "Una Spalla d' Agnello Arrostito", that we have recently made in our oven.
