WOOD-FIRED WONDER
In deepest Lancashire, John Knowles smiles on the newest addition to his garden: a genuine wood-fired Italian pizza oven, About 10ft tall, including its chimney, and shaped like a cylindrical dovecote, the oven is the garden's centrepiece and the family's main outdoor gathering spot.
"We fell in love with the taste of food cooked in wood-fired ovens during our holidays in Italy," says Knowles. "We were surprised to discover you could buy one in England. It took five days to build and then it was ready to go. Everyone loves using it. Our 11 year old son now specialises in calzones".
A few miles down the road lives the Smith family, who also developed a fondness for outdoor ovens while renting an Italian villa equipped with one. Their oven is built into a miniature brick cottage about 7ft tall, complete with a peaked and shingled roof.
"We've used the oven for our Sunday roast and in a few weeks when I have my 40th birthday party we're having 80 people around and will feed them all from this one oven," says Mike Smith.
Asked if he's concerned about the English weather spoiling his party, Smith explains that, unlike barbecues, outdoor ovens are impervious to wind and rain. And, he adds, "Ovens are safer because they don't fall over and because the cooking area isn't in the open so you don't have to worry about children coming too close and getting burnt,"
Are wood-fired pizza ovens the next "must have" for the garden? One man who thinks so is Andrew Manciocchi. In 2002 he abandoned a 20 year career in the insurance business to start Orchard Ovens. Orchard located in Preston, imports and installs Valoriani ovens, a top-of-the-range Italian brand. The Knowles and the Smiths were two of Orchard's first customers.
Manciocchi says he is now selling 60 ovens a year and most people contact him after returning from holiday in either southern Europe or north Africa. But he believes that the desire to own a wood-fired oven goes beyond duplicating the holiday experience.
"People are more adventurous about cooking outdoors these days. They want to do something other than sausages and burgers on a barbecue. You can cook almost anything in one of these ovens. People are also looking at their garden as an extension of the house, as another room where the family can spend time. Ovens are a part of that".
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