The Wood-Fired Blog
Shipping Container House on NPR
May 08, 2013If you are into building things (I am), you might get a kick out of the shipping container house in New York features on NRP’s Science Friday. The house is on a very narrow lot in Brooklyn and is made up from five recycled shipping containers. My favorite part is that because it was easy to cut into the container, they could use recycled windows of just about any size.... Read More
Monterey Bay King Salmon
May 07, 2013We successfully made our first pick-up from Local Catch Monterey Bay, our local seafood CSA — beautiful Monterey Bay King Salmon. Here is their description (I can vouch for the wind): This week we are happy to bring you all California King Salmon from the Monterey Bay harbors triumvirate: Monterey, Moss Landing, and Santa Cruz. Stan Bruno, John Hulliger, Jerry Foster, and Brian Lucas all came together to bring... Read More
Community Supported Agriculture/Farms (CSA/CSF)
May 05, 2013Michael Pollan’s new book and the attention it is getting got me thinking (again) about where our basic food stuff come from — so I went back and watched the documentaries Fresh and Ingredients again (I decided to pass on Food, Inc.). All of which got me thinking about farmers’ markets, CSA/CSFs and sustainable food that is good for us, our kids and the planet. To quote Wikipedia: Community-supported agriculture (Sometimes known as community-shared agriculture or CSA) is... Read More
Sourdough
Apr 30, 2013Michael Pollan is one of my favorite food writers. His book Omnivor’s Dilemma was my first window into industrial food production, and he played a big role in the food documentaries Food, Inc., and Fresh. It’s a pretty sobering view. If you are looking to hear a funny interview, you can find Mr. Pollan appearance on NPR’s Wait, wait… don’t tell me. This is unrelated, but Peter Sagal, the host of Wait,... Read More
April 2013 | No. 49; 10th Anniversary & Braised Chicken
Apr 13, 2013Welcome to our Wood-Fired Newsletter April 2013. This year, Forno Bravo celebrates its 10th anniversary. In a decade, we have helped over 10,000 families and restaurants install and come to enjoy authentic Italian wood-fired cooking. (We aren’t up to 10,000 oven sales yet, but we are well over 10,000 ovens when you include customers who built the Pompeii Oven.) See the article to the right for a little history on... Read More
NY Times — eCommerce Sites Cut out the Middleman
Apr 01, 2013There is an interesting phenomenon highlighted in the NY Times today — a growing number of eCommerce sites actually make their own products, rather than acting as intermediaries between the manufacturer and the end customer (think Amazon). Their lead example is a start-up, Warby Parker, an eyeglasses web site. I say this is interesting, because it is a trend that Forno Bravo have been involved in for years. We are... Read More
Stale Bread, Panzanella, Dutch Tomatoes and the EU
Mar 31, 2013I was writing about food waste and bread storage the other day and mentioned that many traditional recipes call for stale bread — including Panzanella. Like many wonderful Italian dishes, it relies on a short list of high-quality ingredients. In this case, tomatoes, bread, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. If each ingredient is great, then the dish is great; it’s only as good as the weakest links,... Read More
Massive, Open, Online Course (MOOC) — on Food, Physics and Engineering
Mar 29, 2013There is a huge change coming to education. Massive, Open, Online Courses have the potential to fundamentally change the way everyone learns new things — from high school and college kids, all the way up to older types. The industry is exploding, with new online institutions and classes emerging every day. Among the more interesting ideas is that massive class sizes and online teaching and testing infrastructures will give educators... Read More
Bread Storage
Mar 27, 2013We bake and eat a lot of (good, healthy) bread. But there are only three of us when our older daughter is away at college, so we don’t make it through the 2lb loaves that I typically bake in a day or two — so bread storage really matters. Do it wrong, and you end up throwing away of lot of stale bread that could be avoided. Here is a... Read More
