What's the deal with wood fired pizza?
To say that pizza is “wood fired” simply means that it has been prepared in a traditional wood burning oven made of a heat-conductive material such as the Tuscany brick and clay in ours. Centuries of refining and development has enabled this oven design to be able to reach and maintain an extremely high cooking temperature.
The even heat distribution of the traditional wood fired oven means the pizza gets cooked both from the hot bricks below and the hot air convection currents above. The bottom of the pizza will attain a slightly ‘charred’ exterior imparting a smoky flavour while the hot oven will also cook the cheeses and toppings very quickly, which allows them to retain freshness rather than being burnt and dried to a crisp in a slower cooking oven. Moreover, the toppings remain nicely textured; the cheese is melted and bubbling, and the crust has the perfect combination of chewy on top and crispy on the bottom.
The added bonus of the traditional wood fired pizza oven and its high cooking temperature is that pizzas only take a few minutes to cook which helps retain the nutrients and anti-oxidants of the ingredients and of course enhances their flavours.
