Fontana Forni Gusto ???

[George2]

Hello all,

I'm investigating outdoor pizza ovens and was wondering if anyone had experience with http://www.fontanaforniusa.com/ovens/gusto/ I'm looking at the Gusto model specifically. I'm starting to wonder whether the weber pizza oven or millars nice design, I've seen on this site, makes more sense. I'm also curious as to the difference in cooking technique and final product because with the Gusto the fire is kept in a separate chamber so no smoke to food effect... Thoughts?

[shuboyje]

What are your goals?  If you just want to move your pizza making outside, all of them will cook pizza.  If you want to cook Neapolitan pizza I don't think you will be satisfied with any of them.  My feeling is that an outdoor oven that can't cook Neapolitan pizza is kind of a waste, any other form can be cooked in most home ovens with the right setup.

[George2]

Thanks for that... I'm looking for max cooking temps around 700-800. Might not be the 900f described to cook Neapolitans but a 2 minute pizza is quite close. Additionally, I'd like to use the oven for roasts, veggies, maybe some poultry and breads.

[shuboyje]

A Bottom heat oven like the Gusto probably won't give you a balanced bake at 700-800F.  Out of the box the kettle pizza insert for a Weber also has some major issues, BUT they have been tweeked to pretty decent performance.  I wouldn't touch the Millars oven with a 10 foot pole.

I would steer you in one of two directions.  Go with the pizza kettle, tweak, and enjoy on the cheap, or spend a bit more and get one of this small preassembled ovens:

http://www.breadstoneovens.com/collections/frontpage/products/outdoor-700-kit

http://www.fornobravo.com/store/Strada60-24-Portable-Assembled-Pizza-Oven.html

[scott123]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/836344

George2u about 7 hours ago

I did it too, after 2 years we decided to take it down and ordered an oven from http://www.fontanaforniusa.com/

After researching the market we decided on the fontana forni. We love it but at 900 lbs it really is not portable as they suggest, it does have wheels but moving that kind weight is never easy.

George, since this George2u is also from Laguna and posted about the same oven yesterday, I'm assuming this is you, right? I'm confused. Do you own this oven or are you investigating it?

As far as the oven goes... While I'm sure it does a great job at roasting, white ovens will never work for pizza- at least not the bulk of pizza styles that the kinds of people that love pizza are striving for. Not only will this not work for Neapolitan, but it won't work for NY style either, because of a heat imbalance that cannot be corrected for. Unlike other bottom heat scenarios, where heat can be deflected up and onto the top of the pizza, the enclosed nature of this setup prevents that correction. You can dial the temperature down, and, eventually, the top/bottom heat imbalance will begin to resolve, but you're not going to see this until around 450, which basically rules out almost all the favorite styles.

Perhaps if Chicago thin crust or Chicago deep dish pizza lovers wanted to spend an arm and a leg on a pretty outdoor oven, then this might be for them, but that's an incredibly small target demographic.