Rotating pizza ovens

[james]

Here is a link to a very cool new oven that FB has just begun selling -- its a rotating commercial oven. After seeing the demo, we think the U.S. market is ready for it. We are calling it the Modena Twister.

http://www.fornobravo.com/commercial...izza_oven.html

It is basically a Modena140 oven (53" cooking floor), with a round hearth that turns, and a fire source on the right hand side off the turning hearth. It can be either wood-fired or a wood/gas combo. The floor turns in about 2-3 minutes (the operator controls the speed), so that you put a pizza on the floor and by the time the hearth comes around, it's perfectly cooked. The pizzaiolo doesn't have to turn the pizzas inside the oven. They just take one off, and put another one on.

The producer told us that one of these ovens supports the highest volume pizzeria they know about. It's in a village outside Bologna, where it's the best-know pizzeria in the area. They do both sit down dining and take out, and the oven cranks out 180 pizzas an hour at peak times, and keeps a staff of three permanently busy.

This is a serious piece of restaurant equipment, and I don't think it's something that anybody would want to copy at home. But it's fun to look at. I think it will be a very good choice for a restaurant that wants to balance pizza quality with throughput and less pressure on the cooking staff.

James

[jjerrier]

Campania Pizza in Southlake Texas will have a rotating oven!! Not sure if it is from the same manufacturer or not - but it's on the boat now.

We are on about a 45 day countdown to opening...

Jay

www.campaniapizza.com

[shack]

Does anyone have experience with these rotating ovens? Worth the cost?

[Xabia Jim]

There is a rotating WFO nearby that does lamb...maybe I can get some pics?

Did the other one mentioned here get up and running?

[beaglestorm]

I can't wait to see who tries to make one of these first. I can already see somebody here tearing apart their AC (evaporative AC... for those not in the southern states)to get a motor to try it. And part of an old transmission for a reducing gear set and....

[edschmidt]

I was thinking about making one of these a few years ago. But my thoughts were to make a planetary gear set so that not only does the floor rotate for easy access, but the entire pizza rotates to get a complete rotation while closest to the coals. If the pizza didnt rotate around its axis it doesnt seem that you would get even browning of the crust.

[Xabia Jim]

I'd really like to see that one Ed...

[jjerrier]

Rotating ovens are not worth the cost. We have 2 giant ones in our southlake store and we don't even really use the rotating feature. We do 250+ pizzas a day and the ovens can easily handle that in normal mode. We haven't really tried to do the rotating thing - so maybe that's not a fair assessment, but I doubt we'd go the rotating direction again.

[angel40204]

the same su giu in italy. very expensive and bulky. more parts to break down.
this is becoming absurd. they need all that munbo junbo because they cannot bake a crust evenly. but i guess this is what is going on in the usa.
a little too much of technology , thinking they will turn great pizza.
more an ego thing .
by the way the same apply for flours here. industrial productions and quantity over quality . thinking all flours are equal .
once they were selling aluminum siding , now this is the ovens