Edible Vancouver Island Design 2022

Portable pizza ovens For those who don’t have the resources to build a backyard brick oven, fear not! There are plenty of stand-alone “portable” oven options. The most popular options are Ooni and Gozney. Gozney, one of the first companies to market an at-home pizza oven with a small footprint, makes the Roccbox. The Roccbox is a powerful, dual-fuel oven that makes great pizza. Ooni has several oven options that range in price, size and fuel type. Both ovens will make great pizza depend ing on which kind of fuel you want to use. Wood gives the best flavour but is the most difficult to work with, whereas gas is as easy as a barbecue but you do compromise a bit in taste. Wood pellets are an excellent alternative to wood and are much easier to use thanks to their uniform size and convenient packaging. I appreciate the flexibility of the dual fuel oven. It’s great to be able to use the gas option at any time or to use wood when it’s time to nerd out and get my pizza totally dialed in.

One thing that isn’t mentioned much on the oven sites is how dirty they can get. Because of the high cooking tempera tures, grease and food particles carbonize and can make a big mess of your oven. Make sure to always wear an apron and clean your oven (inside and out) every time you use it. Follow the manufac turer's cleaning instructions to keep your pizza oven in top shape. Pizza-making accessories Once you have selected your oven, you will need some accessories. Mono grammed aprons and leather-tassel turn ing peels look cool, but there is only one “must-have” item: a metal loading peel. A peel is like a large pizza spatula with a long handle. This is how you get your pizza in and out of the oven. The pros use Gi.Metal brand of peels and oven acces sories but you can get away with any peel that fits the oven mouth. Beyond that, your accessory choice depends on your personal taste and budget. Cutting your pizza with a giant pizza knife or circular pizza cutter works well, but I’ve always

been fond of a good pair of kitchen shears. Time for a pizza party! Cooking pizza at 700-900°F in 60 sec onds is tricky and things can go wrong fast. So before you invite your boss and her family to a backyard pizza buffet, start slow and work with one pizza at a time. Give yourself plenty of time to dial in a dough recipe and practice us ing your oven. People gravitate towards a pizza oven, so you will most certainly have an audience if you are cooking for a group. Make sure you have made all your mistakes privately, so you don’t have to make them in front of a group of hungry guests! Regardless of which route you take on your pizza-making journey, I wish you the best of luck. Take it slow and don’t be afraid to improvise. After all, pizza is just bread with toppings. You don’t need to adhere to any particular style or dogma if it doesn’t suit your tastes. Most importantly, have fun and get your hands dirty.

30 DESIGN 2022 EDIBLE VANCOUVER ISLAND