My New Four Grand Mere, FGM 700 Oven is here!

[mitchjg]

Last month, I started a thread asking for advice on "which oven should I buy?"

I chose to purchase a Four Grand Mere oven from Bread Stone Ovens.  I wanted to follow up with all of you to thank you for the feedback.  And, I would like to provide feedback for all of you on my purchasing and cooking experience (so far) if it is help to you in the future.

I will start with the dealer of my FGM 700, Antoine Cantarel of Bread Stone Ovens.  I cannot say enough about how positive an experience he created for me.  Our relationship started out with an email exchange in which he indicated he wished to "earn my business."

He did.  His pricing was fair.  As importantly, or more importantly, he was extremely responsive and clear with the many, many questions I had about the oven.  Each was respectful of the opinions of others (on the forum), offered facts and his view, and always stood by me as I made choices.

As I made my decisions, he used an excellent and simple CAD tool to show me pictures of different customization options.  This was important because Antoine agreed to do the full build for and send me a fully constructed oven (I am completely inept, very unhandy, and this was important).  He built a stand on wheels for me.  The stand includes a little extension that became a tool rack.  The opening is decorated with slate that matches the slate in my courtyard.  

The oven arrived as promised, excellently packaged for shipping.  (it took 2hours for a crew of 4 strong men to get it down the 4 steps to my courtyard.  I guess I will never move……)

Now, onto the curing!  I fired it up over 4 days, talking each day to Antoine to make sure I was curing it properly.  

Onto the bake.  Maybe a drop under cooked because I was nervous and had not manipulated and turned a pizza in a hearth oven before, but pretty darn good!

As some of you know, I had a bit of angst over whether or not to get the option with the 2 inch higher opening and dome.  I opted for the higher opening and it seems fine so far.  If anything, the top was cooking faster than the bottom,.  But, I need to keep learning.

Heat retention is great.  I closed down at 7 pm at 750 degrees.  The oven was a bit under 500 in the morning.  I baked a bread in the morning.  By evening, it was at 325.  

Great oven, great dealer!

[Chicago Bob]

Congratulations on your new oven Mitch! Hope you will soon post more pie pic's....she's a beauty. 

[mkevenson]

That one looks great. I wish I baked more than one pie at a time. Happiness must come with a WFO.

Mark

[JimmyMak]

Nice looking & enjoy. Is this oven the same oven J Conko mobile?

[JConk007]

No Jimmy I have what I believe is a forno bravo g100 on a trailer the one I posted recently was one that was  a FGM 950B purchased also fron Antione but put on wheels Moves on patio only! but a great oven !! Loved cooking ing it 

[Chaze215]

Thats a sweet looking oven there mitch. Now you have me wanting one even more. What did it cost to have it shipped to you? Good luck with it!

[Bigfoot21075]

Looks AWESOME! 

[scott123]

Mitch, I'm glad it worked out well for you.  I have to admit that I thought the 700 would be a little on the small side, but it looks like it's fitting a pizza and the fire pretty comfortably.

Could you give us an idea of the total expenditure?

[highlander]

I just purchased a FGM 700 oven from Bread Stone Ovens and it was $3,350 including shipping to the West Coast.  The reasons I bought the smaller oven were due to its' lower wood usage and the fact that I'm an empty nester and am more likely to use the oven when only my wife and I want pizza.   I decided on a FGM because of the quality and my desire to cook bread the morning after cooking pizza.  I'm still curing the oven but everything has gone well so far and I'm looking forward to cooking my first pizzas.

[mitchjg]

Hi Everyone:

Thanks for all of the encouragement.  I have 4 doughs (for 12" pies this time) in the fridge for eating, practice and giveaways this weekend.  In reflecting on last weekend's first bake, the biggest thing challenging me to master so far is how to rotate and move the pizza in the oven with the small peel.  Although it looks like I can easily fit 2 10" pies at a time, i know I am not ready to do that in terms of ability to maneuver and manipulate.

On the shipping cost question (Chaze215), it was about $800 from Maryland to Oakland (SF Bay Area).  Total cost, including everything - shipping, completely build oven, stand, tools, etc. was about $5,300.

Scott123: you mentioned the roominess in the oven.  I thought I would add a picture from last week with a 10" pizza in the oven.  Please forgive the quality of the shot, lots of shadow, poor view of interior, but it looks to me like 2 10" pies at a time is quite feasible.  My guess is there is more ash in there than normal too since I had been building the fire up slowly all day.

Thanks again!