It all started innocently enough. Father’s Day was approaching and I thought what better way to increase the fun factor at home than by providing my husband, Jon, with the concept and tools to build a simple mud oven. I purchased a book – and I signed him up for a pizza workshop held by world-renown baker, Cyril Hitz.
Thus, the obsession began. I created a monster.
Next thing I knew, we were headed up to Maine for the Kneading Workshop, and then soon after to the Common Ground Festival in Skowhegan Maine. The seductive smell of wood fired pizza calls to you, so we followed our noses to the LePaynol station to learn more about their amazing – only truly organic (no toxin producing) – ovens.
Our dear friend, Chef Chris Whirlow, thought this was an amazing idea and his energy and creativity around this project began to fly. We trained and consulted with Cyril, adopting his award-winning recipe for three day fermentation. The crust is the most important aspect of great pizza. This is so not frozen dough or “chain” pizza. The crust is divine.
Speaking of traditional pizza, one typically waits twenty-minutes or longer. I was concerned about the long lines attracted to the wood-fired pizza station. The oven heats upward of 1,000 degrees and pizza bakes up in roughly two minutes. Put in five or six pizzas and you are feeding a long line in seconds. Glad we didn’t have to wait.
Being a fitness person, I love the option of heaping healthy locally-grown veggies onto the pizzas. It is great to benefit from their freshness and increased nutritional value – and we like to support the local farms. We also grow our berries, herbs, and seasonal vegetables on own land in Rehoboth.
So…we have Chef Chris preparing unbelievable toppings…who was going to be our fire master? Fire management is a critical, exacting science. You just don’t toss in the kiln-dried wood, slide in a pizza, and pull-out the gently “leopard spotted” crusted creation. Vasilis Izanidis was the perfect candidate. Hailing from Greece, he has worked in restaurants in his homeland, starting at a young age. He is meticulous and exacting in operating the oven – and you will love his accent.
So, that’s “Team Tomato” – Vasilis, Chris, Julie, and Yu-Cheng our competent and delightful experience design director.
In the next blog posting you’ll read about our beautiful copper-domed oven named “Gilda” – she is quite a “hottie”.