19 Sep Indoor Wood-fired Pizza Ovens Are Latest ‘Big Thing’ Following Dismal British Summer
Poor summer 2023 weather has seen a British company witness the next big thing in terms of lifestyle trends – Brits’ opting for a wood-fired pizza oven inside, in the kitchen, rather than outside in the garden.
Orchard Ovens, based in Preston, has experienced a spike in enquiries about its Cucina oven – one designed to be installed at the heart of a kitchen and creating a wide variety of wood-fired cooked foods. It now sees the Cucina as the immediate future of wood-fired oven ownership in the UK, due to the credentials required of any indoor oven.
Orchard Ovens says more diligence is being shown by indoor oven seekers than is usually the case with those looking for an outdoor oven. Hardly a second thought is given to money wasted on so-called outdoor pizza ovens, which fall apart due to poor quality and inappropriate materials. Those installing indoor ovens know they cannot afford to fit an oven not fit for purpose.
The fear of having to renew an their entire kitchen, not just the wood-fired oven, disrupting design, layout, worktops and surround, is leading to the new boom at Orchard Ovens, where authentic and artisan-built woodfired ovens have a reputation when it comes to their lifespan.
Notably, astute homeowners, making the right choice, are often of Italian descent.
Once is Luca Ferrazzano, now living in Bristol but hailing from Naples, the spiritual home of pizza, where this food has protected UNESCO status. Such is the guardianship over Neapolitan pizza that severe rules govern its cooking and promotion.
Luca had struggled with British pizza ovens. He found them too unreliable for a financial investment and not authentic enough to match his native Italian standards. Usage also found them incapable of cooking anything, unless the weather was absolutely perfect.
This led him to investigate indoor pizza oven options and, wanting an oven that would not see him mocked by visiting Neapolitan relatives, he turned to Preston-based Orchard Ovens.
This is the only UK supplier of top-notch Tuscan Valoriani ovens, including the Cucina – a ready-built oven that can be fitted quickly, inside an indoor kitchen, once the right flue arrangement is installed.
The Ferrazzano family had the Cucina fitted by the Orchard Ovens’ team and it is wowing friends who had no idea it was possible to have an indoor woodfired pizza oven. Luca’s relatives from Naples cannot detect any difference between its pizza and that enjoyed in a downtown Naples pizzeria. Traditional ingredients play a part, but the oven ensures accurate cooking of food, due to the best insulation and construction materials. There are no issues with cold spots and no problem in retaining heat.
Luca has realised that, unlike other ‘pizza ovens’, the Valoriani ‘Cucina’ is superb, with no temperature differential between the top of the oven and the bottom. In others he had tried, users either have to burn the pizza’s top or bottom and compromise on this.
Now, regardless of what the weather brings – sun, rain or snow – his Cucina pizza oven can be fired up and, thanks to its huge versatility, used for a wide variety of dishes, from curry to Lancashire hotpot and bread to shellfish, steak and even chips and Yorkshire pudding.
Orchard Ovens’ director, Andrew Manciocchi, says, “We could not have a better recommender of the Cucina oven than a native of Naples, for whom oven authenticity and quality are crucial.
“Luca is one of a number of customers who have decided the way forward, in an era of climate change and wet summers, is to install an indoor, rather than outdoor, woodfired pizza oven. The shift in thinking we have seen this summer is notable, so we shall be going all out to supply Cucina ovens right through the late summer, autumn and winter. These will be in situ in time to cook up wood-fired festive treats for Christmas, providing lots of joy.”
To find out more about the Cucina (£3495), which comes in a wide variety of colours and for which installation can be quoted, call 01772 250000. More information can be found at www.orchardovens.co.uk
