our oven

Think all ovens are made alike? Think again!

Our oven is our centrepiece. Our pride and joy. It’s what makes this all possible.

In order to make real Neapolitan pizzas, we had to get ourselves a real Neapolitan oven. Our friends at Manna Forni in Napoli were more than happy to abide: our oven is custom-built by HAND following traditions cemented in decades of craftsmanship and using materials from the surrounding volcanic region of Naples. It’s able to withstand a temperature of up to 600° Celsius and cooks our pizza in 60-90 seconds. It really is a masterpiece.

Amazingly, our wonderful Neapolitan oven has origins much closer to home that have remained virtually unchanged over time.

The first people to introduce this kind of wood-burning oven were the ancient Egyptians, who built a cone-shaped artefact divided into two sections by a stone slab. Firewood was placed on the lower part, which cooked the food put on the top part through heat absorbed by the stone.

The Greeks then introduced the domed shape and created the single chamber model: burning wood and food were placed side by side, and consequently, the front-loading model that we so famously associate with baking bread or pizza was born.

The Romans later inherited this structure and perfected it, creating an arched interior capped by an empty cavity which improved insulation.

It has since remained virtually unchanged, for millennia! Of course, building materials and quality do differ, but just like our flatbreads, the principle remains the same.

To see how Neapolitan ovens are made, here’s a wonderful “How it’s Made” video you can check out: