No longer solely the domain of Mediterranean elders, wood-fired ovens are winning over a new breed of home cook, writes Nina Hendy.
THEY could be described as the last bastion of manhood. Except that they're just as popular with women.
Wood-fired ovens are popping up in backyards all over Victoria, replacing designer stainless steel barbecues in increasing numbers.
Even in these chillier months, whole families head to the backyard in coats and beanies to cook the next meal. Once you've experienced the conviviality of cooking in an outdoor oven, it's easy to see the appeal. The evening lasts longer when you cook outside. As you warm your hands at the mouth and talk about your day with family and friends, it's like you've suddenly got your life back.
And suburban families are extending their repertoire far beyond the Italian staple of pizza. Roasts, sourdough bread, piping-hot curries, puddings and steaks are emerging from one of the earliest ovens known to man.
I am an oven convert. My husband Jason built a wood fired oven in our backyard last year. The research bordered on obsessive as he pressed blogosphere buddies for information on the science behind the cooking process and how the dome should be constructed. He had high hopes for his oven. It had to suck air like a vacuum cleaner. It had to light easily and heat quickly. It had to look like it had been there since the dawn of time. And an entire suckling pig had to fit in the door.
I knew he was hooked when I woke to the sound of a concrete truck reversing into our backyard before dawn one Saturday morning. Jason had dug quite some way into the earth to create the footings. The "old girl", as he calls it, would certainly survive a nuclear attack.
But the back-breaking work had its up and downs. He had never built a brick archway, let alone a double brick archway. I watched as he painstakingly pulled out formwork supporting the oven entrance, teeth clenched; terror etched on his face. He had nothing to fear. The arch was perfect.
Once the oven was finished he built a huge fire, cranking the temperature above 500 degrees Celsius, cremating a purpose-built $100 thermometer in the process. But it was far from a disaster, apparently. He was ecstatic that the old girl had it in her.
Maryborough man Peter Silver built his oven from a kit a decade ago - but it looks like it's been there since the dark ages. His guests feast on crispy-based pizzas washed down with local wine. Other nights they devour roast pork and vegetables, Indian food with home-baked naan bread or a piping hot casserole. This time of year he'll poach quinces until they're a glossy, ruby red. Or, he'll make a sweet treat out of home grown apples, figs or pears - depending on what's in season.
His neighbour and close mate Atrel Turner developed a serious case of oven envy before finally biting the bullet last year. When terms such as "heat soak" and "refractory bricks" were part of his vernacular, he dug the footings. "I'd been talking about building an oven for years, but Pete fired me up. Then my old barbecue packed it in so I had the perfect excuse."
The blokes and their wives wander between each others' homes most weeks, cooking up feasts that wouldn't be out of place in a top-notch restaurant. The men stoke the fire with an open bottle of red between them while their wives prepare food inside. "There are two really good restaurants in Maryborough - Atrel's house and my house," Silver says.
"We love how people get together around the oven - there's a real conviviality to it. I'll see my mate, Danny, at the hardware store and the first thing he'll ask is what I've been cooking in the oven."
Guests turn up with an extra coat and a beanie, happily bearing the elements to eat outside. "In winter we move our meals to a late lunch rather than dinner so it's not as cold. And the oven keeps us warm while we're cooking," Silver says.
Guests not blessed with an oven of their own stare into the flames in mute jealousy. Some can't help but kick the proverbial tyres. "Even people who don't have ovens and have never seen one in action before stand around and tell you how to cook and what you're doing wrong. Suddenly everyone's an expert," Silver says.
Victoria's restaurant trade has long sung the praises of wood fired ovens - but it's not just pizzerias that favour this historic form of cooking. Sunnybrae chef/co-owner George Biron cooks mains, desserts and endless loaves of bread in his, insisting the flavour is far superior. His goat shanks with smoked cheese are particularly popular. "It's a different kind of heat. It's a radiant heat rather than a conductive heat, so it heats the centre of the food. People love that we cook out in the courtyard. There's a real romantic notion to it," Biron says.
At Mornington, chefs at La Baracca Trattoria and Spuntino Bar Pizzeria at T'Gallant Winemakers slow-roast tomatoes stuffed with rice and bake foccacias speckled with rock salt in the decade-old wood fired oven. Roman-style pizzas with seasonal toppings are offered with a glass of their own pinot grigio to hungry hordes. If you stand close enough to the counter, radiant heat warms the collective faces of those waiting for pizzas topped with fig and gorgonzola or honeyed onions with orange, feta and rosemary.
There's also a picture perfect oven in the corner of the outdoor area at Melbourne's Flinders Lane restaurant, Sarti. But in a cruel twist - council laws - the oven can't be lit. Sarti's owner/chef Riccardo Momesso dreams of opening a second restaurant with a huge wood-fired oven in the kitchen. "If I was allowed to use my current oven I'd have a different menu altogether ... it opens up all sorts of dining and menu options."
Meantime, amateur cooks emulate restaurant-quality menus at home. Up to 150 Melburnians sign up for the wood-fired oven-building course run by the Centre for Adult Education each year. "We've been running this course for more than 10 years, so wood-fired ovens aren't exactly a fly-by-night fad. We fill every spot and often have to put on extra courses throughout the year," lifestyle programs manager Rob Large says.
When kiln builder and ceramic artist Alan Watt built his oven years ago, friends begged him to explain how it's done. Before long he had a business on his hands. These days he teaches the fine art of building your own oven, travelling across the country year-round. About 250 people a year fork out $200 to take his two-day course, which includes a cooking demonstration.
His ovens are built from generic house bricks and cost around $780 in materials for the high-tech version, depending on size.
To build your own, allow at least a 1.2-metre by 1.4-metre space, he says. "They're not that hard to build once you're shown the ropes. And despite popular belief, it's not necessary to use refractory bricks. House bricks are fired at 1300 degrees anyway, so they're fine," Watt says.
His students are never cut from the same cloth. He's passed his knowledge on to a violinist from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a 13-year-old boy, young and old couples and even pizzeria operators who want to master the cooking technique. Clinical hypnotherapist and Clamms seafood owner Fof Kaparos was one of his students. The Albert Park woman built her own oven from scratch after the course. She may be petite, but building an oven has nothing to do with muscles, she says. "If you can make mud pies, then you can build an oven," Kaparos says.
Her Greek heritage inspired her to wind her cooking back to basics. "I wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself. The actual building process was incredibly soothing; to be working with the earth was somehow nourishing and therapeutic. It only took me five days."
If money is no object and patience is perhaps not your virtue, professional kit ovens might be the way to go. Melbourne's Mark England sells wood fired ovens from $1699. "You can buy a cheap one from the hardware store, but people are willing to pay more to have a traditional-looking oven that looks like it's been there a lifetime," England says.
A Melbourne family with Italian roots imports kit ovens from their birthplace. Their Thomastown shop, Ima Forni,is frequented by backyard chefs seemingly unfazed by the credit crunch, who fork out up to $4400 for an oven. "People from all different backgrounds appreciate the traditional ways of cooking. They want a slice of Italy in their own backyard," manager Angela Polito says.
Bonny Nardella used a kit from Ima Forni to create the family's new feature in their Greensborough backyard 18 months ago. He was inspired by his Italian heritage and his parents' love affair with their wood-fired oven. "I went for a kit. It was purely a time factor. Once I decided I wanted one, I couldn't wait to start cooking in it."
Every few weekends, Nardella calls his sisters over and together they make up to 14 loaves of bread. He stores his share in the fridge, where it keeps for a month. "I use my mother's recipe from Italy for bread. Making bread becomes a real family day."
Nardella had some inside knowledge on building an oven as he's a builder, but believes anyone can build an oven. "I don't think it's beyond the average person's realm if they're passionate."
Whether you build from scratch or buy a kit, if you're into food, you won't regret it. We cook in our oven at least twice a week. On Christmas Day three whole chickens, a pork and pear roast, a side of salmon and smashed potatoes drizzled in olive oil and rosemary were slid in to the oven and the made-to-measure stainless-steel door was pushed shut. My chest rose with pride as the food was placed on the table a few hours later. We just wish we'd built it years ago. We can't imagine life without one now.
DO YOU NEED A PERMIT?
Commercial wood-fired ovens are subject to a planning permit, according to Melbourne City Council. However, homeowners don't need a planning permit to build an oven as long as the installation won't adversely affect surrounding buildings. Despite this, it's best to check details with your council first. The flue also needs to be installed by a licensed plumber.
LEARN MORE
Includes an online forum to ask questions of others building ovens.
http://www.traditionaloven.com
Youtube is also a good resource - just type in wood-fired oven construction. Try these:
http://www.woodfiredpizza.org/construction/construction.html
In Melbourne, the Centre for Adult Education runs a wood-fired oven building course. Phone 9652 0611 or go to http://www.cae.edu.au
Alan Watt runs workshops across the country.
Visit http://www.woodfiredovenworkshops.com.
Buy a wood-fired oven from Ima Forni, at 19 Norwich Avenue, Thomastown. Phone 9460 6808.
George Biron's cassoulet
One of the added pleasures of a wood-fired oven is the residual heat left after baking or roasting. The oven will stay hot for a long time and each temperature range has a good use. This recipe is for when the oven is at between 150 and 120 degrees Celsius.
You can also make slow cooked quinces between 130 and 80 degrees and make granola when it goes to below 60 degrees. It took us about six months to gather up the confidence to leave dishes such as the quinces in overnight but the results are well worth it.
A simple cassoulet (inspired by Paula Wolfert from The Cooking of The South West of France)
INGREDIENTS
3 chorizo sausages
3 duck marylands (leg and thighseparated) that have been lightly prinkled with salt and dark sugar overnight
6 small pieces of smoked pork
200g Mount Zero lentils
2 heads of garlic separated with the loose skin removed, but not peeled.
3 bay leaves
6 juniper berries
a sprig of thyme
the zest of an orange
1.5 litres of beef or chicken stock.
Make a thick flour and water dough to seal on the lid.
METHOD
Choose a heavy cast-iron or ovenproof clay baking dish with a good solid lid.
Quickly rinse the duck legs and pat dry. Arrange the duck legs, chorizo, pork and garlic in the pot. Cover with lentils and aromatics and add the stock. There should be about 4 cm of stock covering the meats.
Roll the dough out into a long thin strip and place on top of the rim of the pot. Push the lid on to make it tight.
Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Check by breaking the seal after an hour, if it's too dry add water or stock. Taste, season and cook further until an unctuous deliciousness is achieved.
Serve with a simple salad.
Serves 6
(I have to admit that I love to eat the sealing dough dipped into the sauce, too.)