30
Mar
When running a pizzeria, the oven is the heart and soul of the whole operation. Whether or not your products have that genuine pizza flavour will directly depend on the quality of your oven. In addition, when gathering all the necessary kitchen appliances, the oven will be the largest and most expensive purchase. That being said, choosing a pizza oven is a decision that should only be made after some careful research and consideration. Here’s a simple guide to help you find the right model for your establishment.
source: pro.alfaforni.com
When looking for any kind of commercial kitchen equipment, the first thing you need to consider is its size. You want to pick a pizza oven that can fit into your kitchen without obstructing the flow of movement or taking up too much space. But it should also be able to meet your business’ demands. If you’re a restaurant with a variety of kitchen appliances, you probably won’t have much space left for a pizza oven. In addition, pizza might not be your most popular item on the menu. In this case, you will probably best benefit from a convection oven. Convection ovens are usually the smallest commercial grade ovens. The standard convection oven takes up around 1.5 cubic metres, but there are even smaller models.
If you have enough space to spare and want to be a pizzeria with a wide range of options on the menu, a deck pizza oven is ideal for your needs. These ovens can be used for baking all kinds of dishes, not just pizza. With the help of a deck pizza oven, you can offer other popular Italian dishes such as pasta, or breadsticks, wings, chicken dishes and other items. This type of oven also allows you to use containers with lids while cooking. By doing so, you can avoid drying out certain items. Most deck ovens are around 3 cubic metres and can accommodate up to four trays at a time. This helps speed up your operations.
Very large operations can also choose from conveyor or brick ovens. These take up the most space as they are available at sizes from 4 to 8 cubic metres.
source: thedailymeal.com
Depending on customer demand, your establishment should be able to make a number of pizzas within a given time frame. In this regard, convection ovens have the lowest output. One convection oven usually has two to five racks. To help you picture this, one rack usually has enough space to carry two 40cm pizzas. They are also slower than other types of ovens. A convection oven can take around 20 minutes to preheat and can cook the pizza within 6 minutes. With that being said, convection ovens are only suitable for a small pizza business.
On the other hand, if you’re a busy pizzeria that looks to make more pizzas within an hour, you should focus your search on the range of deck ovens or brick ovens. A deck oven doesn’t need to be preheated. so there’s no waiting time. It can fit up to six pizzas per deck and cook them in around eight minutes. A standard deck oven can come with two to three decks. You can also purchase a modular one that will allow you to add extra decks in the future to increase productivity if demands grow.
The standard brick oven can cook around 10 pizzas at the same time. But unlike deck ovens, brick ovens aren’t designed to be expanded, which means you won’t be able to boost your productivity in the future. However, brick ovens make up for this by being able to cook pizzas the fastest – in only 5 minutes.
As mentioned, the oven will be your most expensive purchase. Considering this, you’ll want to pick a model that will be reliable and serve you throughout the whole time that you’ll be in business. While convection ovens are the most affordable of all the options, they are most susceptible to damage. In order to prevent a convection oven from breaking down, you will need to regularly clean their intake fans and their inside. And this can be time-consuming.
But a higher price doesn’t necessarily mean higher quality either. For instance, conveyor ovens, although being the most expensive of the bunch, are easily prone to defects. A conveyor oven has many small parts and mechanisms moving inside of it which can deteriorate with use, requiring you to hire professional help to fix it.
A brick pizza oven has no fixed price. You don’t even know for certain whether it will perform as desired. It all depends on the contractor that you hire to build it. Additionally, brick ovens require a lot of cleaning besides a simple scrub down. You will also need to feed it with a constant supply of firewood.
All in all, deck ovens are considered to be the most cost-efficient purchase among all the types mentioned. They are known for their exceptional durability as far as commercial ovens go. They don’t have moving parts and require little-to-no maintenance aside wiping the outside on the occasion and scrubbing the inside when you notice there’s accumulated grease.
