Hi John! =)
Well, well, well...great start to a write up about this weeks test event and training with my clients at the Ignite test kitchen. Both Mandy and Brian contacted me again and thanked us for the amazing private setting and knowledge / training they received. Thanks again John! Wonderful having you visit us yet again. Let's keep the monthly trips into Denver going! Heck, just move over to this side of the country and be with us daily. I just booked another event in two weeks for early March after I return from Kelly's in Baltimore with Stefano Ferrara. Adam is going to have to be my guru helper while you are absent. John and I welcome anyone to contact us for the use of the test kitchen via our company on this WoodStone at Ignite our reps for WoodStone sales or "very-very-very soon" here at our own facility Wood Fired Oven Baker, Inc. on many Italian import ovens Acunto Gianni, Acunto Mario, Stefano Ferrara, Valoriani/Mugnaini…which is under construction completion date early spring 2014 after the International Las Vegas Pizza Expo!
Attached photo shows the newest kid on the block for our test kitchen just being tiled and grouted yesterday and the day prior. It’s the new “NSF/UL” certified Acunto Mario Classico Forni we have been importing into the country, this one being the Vulcano Extra style - 130cm interior cooking space. According to oven floor depth / height thickness from the bottom of the oven to the top cooking surface of the oven floor, Acunto Mario has “the thickest” for retaining heat and energy at just over 13 ¾ inches thick from any of the competition it’s up against. This is the “amazing thing about math and numbers…you can’t manipulate a number like people do opinions. A number is a number and it tells much of a story and where things lead in manufacturing and materials used. =) Truly this is a “HUGE” reason why I flew directly to Naples Italy in Spring 2013 to speak and collaborate with Mario and Salvatore Acunto and why we as well had a visit from them at our facility located just outside Denver as the importer / dealer of their ovens. NOTE: Please reference and see Kelly’s (pizzablogger’s) post right here dated July 3rd 2013 to review his research of the outlined statements and facts noted here on oven floor thickness. The refractory dome is another amazing site to see as well as the only Italian forni manufacturer using the dome technique where each brick starting at the cooking floor is cut to curve and handle the weight of the thick refractory dome. Mario Acunto who is still building ovens today with his team of artisan’s is in fact an amazing engineer. In (pizzablogger’s) post he notes that in (4) which is half of the (
ovens reviewed, the floor thickness to retain “heat and energy” on a Mario Acunto is almost over half as thick as other manufacturers essentially being thicker than them all. This is the same oven (txcraig) is using. We actually sell all of those manufacturers on that list except for one. I have (
more Acunto Mario Classico’s that just arrived in the USA Houston port. January & February alone we shipped out of Napoli Italy Qty: (3) 40’ ocean containers of mixed oven, dough mixer, charcuterie slicer equipment…pure Italian Love!
Really, we are so looking forward to having guests bake with us, smile / laugh; collaborate on pizza nerdyness and in the end to break bread with us. To breath in a sigh of happiness and love for this artisan pizza! All in all, to have lots of fun and take the assumptions and opinions out of the dough mixers (fork or spiral which we have both in stock and the only UL/NSF machines right now in the USA as of today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We are excited for reviewing the oven bake letting the pizzaiolo see the differences for themselves and what specific oven fits their pizza concept. I don’t think anyone enjoys having one specific manufacturer shoved down his or her throat. To be able to live in the dough…mixed from a fork mixer or a spiral mixer or my hand side by side and or to bake in an oven side by side. Sounds “AMAZING TO ME”!
What a few great days it was John and lots of fun too! Seems like many people have enjoyed the technique I learned and we implemented while training at the VPN for using pasta instead of mozzarella since the consistency weight is very similar to mozzarella once cooked down for topping. It really saved wasting delicious fior di latte that we had just stretched and balled prior that morning.
John, thanks for being a truly amazing pizzaiolo chef and a huge contributing part of the team here at Wood Fired Oven Baker, Inc.
Grazie Mille John~
Ellie
