A beautiful custom: the simplicity of wood-fired cooking

In a small but infamous region of southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto to the south, food is a central and important part of the lifestyle; it is shared, social and community-oriented. 

It’s from the memories of a childhood this region, known in Italian as Puglia, that a now Australian-based designer developed a range of decidedly Italian outdoor pizza ovens. “Being Italian, good food is important to me,” My-Woodfiredoven's Giuseppe Carluccio says. 

“My passion for cooking comes from my childhood memories; we had a wood-fired oven in the backyard where my mother would bake the bread and then put a pignata or meat or soup to slow cook in the retained heat. 

“In Puglia, most families have a wood-fired oven in their backyard, or if they don’t, they use a community oven in the village to bake their homemade breads or slow cooked soups and stews. It’s a beautiful custom that I believe everybody should have the chance to experience. 

“It’s such a genuine, social and entertaining way of cooking that takes us back to times when food was actually simple but delicious. Perhaps we are moving back to a desire now to recreate simple, healthy food and having your own wood-fired oven makes it easy to create delicious simple meals that become the centre of shared time with family and friends.”

Unlike many outdoor cooking solutions, a wood-fired oven is designed to release heat slowly, allowing it to be used for a wide variety of cooking styles - covering everything from bread to soups and stews, and, of course, pizzas.

“Each of the ovens in our range offers slightly different functionalities, but in general, the ovens are designed to ensure every dish is cooked to perfection. Our most compact oven for example has a rotating cooking floor and radiating baffle - which is engineered to direct the flow of heat,” Giuseppe says.

My-Woodfiredoven’s range of outdoor ovens are constructed with double stainless steel oven walls and insulated with a ceramic blanket between the wall layers for optimum heat retention. The oven floor is insulated with high-density fibre to keep the heat inside the oven. 

“A specially designed stainless steel baffle inside the dome ensures that the heat is used more efficiently and reflects faster to the oven floor which makes it ideal for the best wood fire pizza, roasts, breads and slow cooked dishes.”

For the most compact of outdoor ovens such as The Piccolo, only a tiny log of hardwood is required at any one time to keep it going, Giuseppe says. “The compact design allows it to heat up in 15 minutes, and, once hot to rival the performance of much larger ovens; it will cook the perfect pizza in just a few minutes and add the beauty of the wood-fired taste.”

Larger ovens may require higher quantities of wood, but in general, perform particularly well with little wood required to retain the best cooking heat.

Giuseppe’s Italian background is no surprise when it comes to the design intentions of the My-Woodfiredoven range, with their sculptural dome-like forms and decorative glass mosaic tiles, the ovens offer a timeless beauty and an enviable design feature for any outdoor setting. 

Find out more about wood-fired ovens and the designer ranges from My-Woodfiredoven, now available in New Zealand.