le panyol oven

[pizzaman383]

Do any of you have experiences with the Le Panyol ovens which you might share? How do they compare with the Forno Bravo ovens?

[redbricknick]

As fer as I know, Forno Bravo ovens are far superior to the La Panyol ovens. If I remember correctly, several la panyol ovens exploded in the mid eighties, badly maiming pizzaolas across much of the eastern seaboard.

[pizzaman383]

I'm glad to hear that the Forno Bravo ovens are so good. What is it that makes them so much better? Aside from not exploding, that is ;-).

[redbricknick]

Having an invaluable forum such as this to share methods on topics ranging from oven installation and firing methods to pizza dough hydration and topping selection makes going with a Forno Bravo oven a no brainer. Anyone who cares about pizza oven lifestyles enough to set up and maintain a forum such as this obviously cares enough to only sell the very best ovens and accessories.

[redbricknick]

Having an invaluable forum such as this to share methods on topics ranging from oven installation and firing methods to pizza dough hydration and topping selection makes going with a Forno Bravo oven a no brainer. Anyone who cares about pizza oven lifestyles enough to set up and maintain a forum such as this obviously cares enough to only sell the very best ovens and accessories available.

[DrakeRemoray]

See, so nice you said it twice!

But I do agree, James obviously has a passion for pizza and pizza ovens. I am sure he will take this opportunity to jump on and detail some of the reasons that make Forno Bravo ovens superior...

Drake

[james]

I definitely enjoy my ovens and the entire process of helping build up a community of people who own, enjoy and use wood-fired ovens. To think that this Forum is less than 18 monhts old -- and you have to wonder what we all would have done without it.

On the Forno Bravo ovens, I can say that we invested a lot of time indentifying the right producer(s) and building relationships with them. I also installed ovens from different producers, and cooked in ovens from different producers before going ahead. It wasn't easy, but the results have been excellent. The Forno Bravo ovens heat up faster, hold heat better, cook better and last longer than either their Italian competitors, or ovens made in France or the sates. I have never cooked in the specific brand you mention, but I have cooked quite a few times in French made ovens, and I think the Italian ovens in general (and Forno Bravo ovens in particular) are much better. The heat up issue is important for backyard cooking, and having an oven that heats up in 45 minutes is a lot better than one that heats up in 90 minutes or more. And it is not fun watching an oven that took 90 minutes to heat up lose its heat before your chicken has finished cooking (I've been there).

Our ovens our made from a proprietary refractory material (not clay or generic refractory concrete), and the shape is perfect. Another way I think about it is that the Italian pizza oven market is much (much) bigger than any other pizza oven market in the world, and that there are more producers and it is more competitive. The result is better ovens. Add the fact that our precast oven producer is the largest in Italy by a wide margin, and it all makes logical sense to me.

I'll stop boring you.

I put together a 10 Reasons Why our ovens are the best list a while back. You can find it here:

http://fornobravo.com/why_forno_bravo.html

James

[pizzaman383]

Thanks for the information!

[dmun]

Originally Posted by redbricknick

If I remember correctly, several la panyol ovens exploded in the mid eighties

This appears to be an urban legend. The American distributor has just posted a thoughtful piece discussing his product, and refractory failure in general:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f6/l....html#post8052 (Le Panyol construction and Stability)