Back From a Break From Blogging

It’s been a while since I last blogged, and I have a ton of good stuff queued up to share with you. You might know that 2013 marked our 10th year at Forno Bravo, and we ended the year with a bang. 2013 was our biggest sales year ever, and it marked our 10th consecutive year of year-over-year growth. I’m really proud of that, and for all the people we have helped fall in love with the world of wood-fired cooking.

We have now been in our new factory for a little over a year, and we are getting more efficient all the time, and I am also happy to say that our quality and craftsmanship has never been better. I am a huge believer in continual improvement, and after 10 years of building the world’s best pizza oven, we are always getting better.

Looking forward, we have lots of fun things in the works that we will be sharing with you over the coming weeks and months, including new products, recipes and cloud-based services that we think will help you get more than ever out of your oven — or maybe become a happy owner of a wood-fired for for the first time. Stay tuned.

Out of the gate, we just posted a new series of great Pizza Oven Photos, something I really enjoy. We have some stunning ovens, and some nice snow shots. And some beautiful international ovens.

Speaking of snow, if you are getting hammered this winter, you have my condolences. Our daughter goes to college in Boston, and she has seen it all. Of course Forno Bravo is located in sunny Northern California, where (apparently) it never rains (and we are in a state of emergency). So to help everyone get through the final tough days of winter, we are going to have a Photo Contest. Details to come shortly, but I can say that we will be partial to snow photos in support of our friends in the central and eastern USA. (Sorry Australia).

In other news, I am still baking bread, almost daily, and my sourdough culture is alive and well. I’ve learned a great deal, that I want to share. Think of it as the confessions of a mediocre brad baker. Complete with photos taken from my phone.

And I am still running. Boston2BigSur is coming up in a couple of months (it will be my fifth), and I’m signed up for my second Ironman this summer, with a pretty unrealistic goal of qualifying for Kona in 2-3 years.

So there are lots of good things to look forward to, which for many of you, I know includes spring, and lots of wood-fired cooking!

Stay warm.