First recorded in the 10th century the Pizza has never been so popular with some commentators suggesting we are now entering a “Golden Age” with the rise of the Pizzaiolo . New technologies and innovations help pizzerias, restaurants and takeaways to quickly and consistently create the perfect pizza – authentic Italian or luscious deep pan to take away.
A big decision for any pizzeria, takeaway or restaurant with pizza on the menu – which pizza oven is best for them? The wood fired piza oven can provide the centre piece and real theatre to the front of house dining experience in your restaurant or you may simply need to create delicious pizzas as quickly and economically as possible. We’ve created this guide to help you decide.
Start with Speed.
For high volumes of pizzas at speed, then the conveyor pizza oven is perfect for you. The commercial conveyor oven is ideal for kebab shops & takeaways where quick production is a necessity.
The conveyor oven has a set of rollers so you can place uncooked pizzas on one end of the conveyor, it is then pulled through the oven under powerful heating elements and is cooked, on average, in 4-6 minutes.
Benefits of the conveyor oven:
- High volume production.
- Approximately 80 pizzas per hour.
- Little pre-heat time.
- Arguably, more versatile than traditional ovens.
- Does not require constant attention.
Limitations of the conveyor oven:
- Does not produce the authentic Italian taste that you get from traditional stone based and/or wood fired pizza ovens.
- Best results achieved with thin crust pizzas with little topping.
The most popular member of the pizza oven family…
The deck pizza oven is the choice for most restaurants & pizzerias offering pizza on they’re menu.
Deck ovens produce high quality, traditional style pizzas due to the refractory stone base and radiant heat of the cooking chamber. They are the modern equivalent of the brick oven, creating the same authentic flavour without the hassle of preparing and cleaning of the traditional brick pizza oven. Deck ovens are often visible front of house, providing authenticity and that much sought after theatre to your establishment, long handled pizza shovels used to load and unload the pizzas in full view of your hungry customers.
There are many options to choose from when deciding on your deck pizza oven. You need to consider the following.
Size – how many and what size pizzas will you need to produce?
Follow our badges on our website as a guide to the production of each deck oven.
(The pictures of pizzas show how many can fit and the size displayed on the pizza shovel)
Space
Check the dimensions of the pizza ovens and make sure it can fit into your kitchen. If you need help with this, our design team can help you spec the right size oven. All we need is your measurements.
Through 25 years of research, testing and working with pizzerias GAM have created, what they believe to be the best deck pizza, oven for those wanted to bake a true Italian tasting pizza. GAM recommend the AZZURRRO, this is a twin deck oven with upwards opening doors and quality insulation resulting in massive energy savings.
New technologies in deck pizza ovens have allowed GAM to create the KING series of pizza ovens. This series are the only deck pizza ovens in the world that have IWOS (Italian Wood Oven Substitute). The system creates delicious flavours that you would get from a traditional wood fired oven through air circulation and heat recovery back into the chamber.
Also available from GAM is the PRINCE series deck pizza oven featuring PRS (Pizza Recall System) and interactive touch display. The refractory stone will turn and bring back the requested pizza to the door of the baking chamber when selected on the interactive touch screen. The PRINCE deck oven is perfect for pizzerias wanting to create traditional taste at high speed with the capacity to cook 180 x 34cm (13”) per hour.
The only drawback to the deck pizza oven is the speed, where the conveyor can heat up almost immediately the deck oven will take around 20 minutes to reach 300°C.
The Traditional Wood Burning Oven
Favoured by gourmet cooks and traditional chefs, traditional ovens are often seen in pizzerias and restaurants who want to offer a genuine artisanal experience. These ovens use wood, gas or coal fire heating the oven up to 1000 degrees. Dome shaped at the top to refract and magnify the heat inside.
The traditional pizza oven features a stone hearth which conducts heat to the pizza crust. They are often the centrepiece of pizza restaurants, who proudly advertise the use of such an oven to attract customers.
There is no denying the traditional oven provides the most traditional flavour but there are drawbacks. The ovens usually take up to an hour to get to optimum cooking temperature, they require a lot of preparation and storage for wood/ coal, therefore only used in restaurants that produce a lot of pizzas throughout the day. Installing these huge machines can be particularly challenging due to the current regulations, their sheer size and colossal weight.
Caterkwik provide a range of Traditional ovens please call our sales team for expert advice to specify the best oven for you with your own choice of design. 01229 480001.
