Chez panisse and Alice Waters

[ThermoJax]

Apparently when she was designing Chez panisse, Alice waters wanted to incorporate a pizza oven like the one from Turin that had given her an epiphany. She hired a german brick layer who didn't know anything about italian pizza ovens, and in fact had never heard of a pizza oven, so he basically built her a german bread oven. Wolfgang Puck came to see it and hired the same german to build one for him.

She said that she tried to live with it for 10 years. It used 10 times the amount of wood that an Italian pizza oven does, and it did cook as she says "a certain kind of pizza, but it certainly wasn't a pizza in the way that an Italian would think about it"

Alice Waters & Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric ...
By Thomas McNamee, R. W. Apple (page 158)

[james]

That is wonderful. I can't imagine that I hadn't read this before.

Thanks for the find!
James

[ThermoJax]

I post this in the newbie forum as a newbie myself. Having just completed my pompeii oven, being extremely pleased, I see newbies always wanting the "bread oven" that will also cook pizza. I think they should be thinking more along the lines of a pizza oven that will also do breads, meats and more. The plans here are the most efficient for fuel use as well.

[james]

We couldn't have said it better. :-)

Plus the better air movement and high heat retention. Thanks!

James