The Wood-Fired Blog
Innovating the Pizza Oven; Part II
Sep 30, 2012In yesterday’s posting about the Ovens from Napoli, I found myself writing and thinking about the companies that make pizza ovens, and their underlying organizational and design philosophies. And whether they are innovative or traditional; pushing the state-of-the-art or still making their grandfather’s pizza oven. One of the first things that struck me was how virtually every other pizza oven company is deeply rooted in the past, and how much... Read More
Craigslist, Profit Compression and Pizza Ovens
May 27, 2012I’ve been thinking about the NY Times Douthat column on Facebook and commerce, and there is one thing I want to add to my posting (Physical Goods in a Virtual Era). In his column, Douthat notes that Facebook is no General Motors, and that despite their $100B market capitalization, they don’t actually employ very many people 9 (a tiny fraction of GM’s payroll in it’s heyday). In fact, even Apple,... Read More
Innovation, Garages and Pizza Ovens
May 26, 2012Mention the words garage and innovation, and many people will quickly conjure up visions of Hewlett, Packard, Wozniak, and Jobs. The Silicon Valley success that started in a garage is the stuff of legend—and it’s a well-earned legend. Start-up companies that built their first products in their garage, long before the even had enough money for company offices, have gone on to create some of the world’s most wonderful, and... Read More
Innovating the Outdoor Fireplace: Part 3
May 17, 2012I have been writing about ways that Forno Bravo can develop an outdoor fireplace that is both easy to set up and also looks like a real, site-built masonry outdoor fireplace. Here is a graphical view of how these layers might look. Read More
New Third Generation FB Castable
Apr 12, 2012This is the original version of the article I wrote on the new third-generation FB Castable. A shorter version of this appeared in the March 2012 Wood-Fired Newsletter. James We have developed a great deal of expertise at Forno Bravo over the years with refractory materials and insulators, and we have worked hard to continually improve. We are proud to introduce the third generation of FB Castable, the material we... Read More
Innovating a 2,000 Year Old Product
Apr 10, 2012The word innovation usually conjures up images of semiconductors, Internet software and green energy. But at Forno Bravo, we keep innovating around a 2,000 year old product. I have written a lot over the years about the ovens in ancient Pompeii, and how remarkable the design, the materials and the craftsmanship were on the ovens. How do you improve on something that has been so well known and understood for... Read More
