Alexey Shkapa told how different types of ovens, choose sets propane pizza ovens differ from each other :

Wood burning pizza oven

The wood-fired oven primarily bakes Neapolitan (New York) style pizza. Cooking takes place at a temperature of 400 ° C and more due to three components: infrared radiation in the spectrum up to 0.7 µm (fire), heated ceramics, convection heat (4-6 µm) and thermal conductivity of the ceramic hearth. Infrared heat in the range of 4–6 microns allows baking pizza with a crispy side, which is the height of professionalism: the crust remains thin, and the crumb remains porous and soft. Cheese and topping are baked and caramelized (and boiled and stewed at low temperatures). With the correct test and the appropriate qualifications of the master, the quality of baking pizza in a wood-burning oven is higher. Pizza in a wood-fired oven cooks twice as fast as in a hearth, therefore, with the same dimensions, a wood-fired oven gives greater productivity, and the check can be raised, since the taste characteristics are better. A wood-burning oven with an inner diameter of 100 cm is suitable for a cafe and a restaurant with 30-40 seats – without losing the quality of baking, you can simultaneously cook four pizzas with a diameter of 35 cm in it. For cafes and pizzerias with 50–70 seats, a wood-burning oven with a diameter of 120 cm is suitable, at the same time it is possible to bake 5–6 pizzas with a diameter of 35 cm in it. A large number of pizzas baked at the same time in one oven is highly undesirable, this applies to both wood-burning and hearth ovens. Expenses: dry wood for the oven for 6 pizzas (oven inner diameter: 120 cm) – 5 cu. m per month, about 3.5 thousand rubles. 

Infrared heat from the fire allows you to quickly bake pizza – the dish is cooked in 60 seconds. The smell of firewood and cooking on fire – elements of the show – give additional bonuses to the institution

Deck ovens for pizza 

The hearth oven operates at 350–380 Cº, there is no infrared heat in the short wavelength spectrum, only partially infrared heat in the long wavelength spectrum works, convection and thermal conductivity of the hearth, therefore it will not be possible to quickly cook pizza at high temperatures (450 Cº): by that time, when the side and bottom of the pizza start to burn, it may remain unbaked inside, and besides, the frying effect does not work: sausages and topping are simply cooked in cheese. Expenses: electricity, depending on the power consumption, 6–8 kW / h in heating mode, for an oven for 6 pizzas – 8–10 thousand rubles. per month. 

Alexey Shkapa, when buying hearth furnaces, advises to take into account the availability of free electric power for the operation of this “voracious” equipment

Conveyor pizza ovens

The conveyor oven does not have a hearth, cooking takes place mainly by convection, resulting in an average quality of pizza, which is compensated for by a high productivity. The person is removed from the cooking process, his presence is important only at the stage of setting up the equipment. Adding to this the savings on personnel (special skills are not required), we find that with a large number of orders, a conveyor oven is more profitable than a hearth and wood-burning one. Costs: Conveyor ovens are uneconomical because a lot of electricity is wasted to maintain the operating temperature when the system is open. 

In a small pizzeria with 40-50 seats, it doesn’t make sense to buy a conveyor oven. For 400 pizzas per shift, this is what you need, if you do not pay special attention to the quality of baking

Choosing a professional pizza oven: an overview of the Russian market

The most important thing in the oven is a long service life and low consumption of electricity, and the main function is to quickly gain heat and hold it for a long time. However, manufacturers continue to improve their stoves, releasing, for example, hearths with heating up to 500 degrees or wood stoves with a revolving fireplace, which are more expensive, but consume less firewood and do not require additional personnel. The Italians sometimes supplement the wood-burning stove with a gas burner (in Russia, in this case, additional approvals are required during installation), there are options for stoves with a hearth that rises up. 

Modern pizza ovens have:

• automatic temperature control;
• automatic door opening;
• automatic cleaning;
• a revolving fireplace – all this helps to obtain an excellent result.

The hearth furnace requires deeper knowledge and good experience with it, notes Alex Todaro. If the cook previously worked on a conveyor or wood-burning oven, it will take patience and dexterity to switch to the hearth.
During baking, the pizza maker has to take into account the intensity of the temperature, the temperature of the hearth and the arch of the oven, check the readiness of the crust of the pizza, remove the bubbles of dough, make sure that the cheese does not burn, peel it under, etc. “It would be great to have not only a smartphone, but also a“ smart oven ”, which, for example, recognizes itself that some part of the pizza is burning, saves the settings for different baking options, lets you know when the pizza is ready inside, and cleans itself , eventually. It is convenient, because when the restaurant is fully loaded, you have no right to make a mistake even for a couple of minutes, because it will knock down the entire kitchen system, ”shares his expectations from the equipment Alex Todaro .