MAKE SPACE TO BUILD YOUR OUTDOOR OVEN
If you return from your fortnight in Tuscany or the Dordogne and want to recreate the experience of the family congregating in the garden around an oven, this is what you need to know.
Space is the first consideration. For even a small oven you will need just over a square metre and enough space around it to manoeuvre the long-handled paddles, called peels, that enable you to move food safely in and out of the oven.
As ovens are low-tech appliances, price is determined by size: the bigger the oven, the more it costs. Both the Knowles and the Smiths have the Valoriani Speciale model with a diameter of 80cm and a cost of £999. The 110cm version costs £1,299.
The cost of installation depends on how elaborate a housing you want. Outdoor ovens are prefabricated in factories and arrive at your home in sections for assembly on site. The larger the housing, the more time, materials and money it requires.
Labour charges differ around the country but in most places £2,000 should be enough to allow you to build a housing as striking as the Knowles' dovecote or the Smith's cottage. Local councils regard outdoor ovens as a form of barbecue so planning permission and the services of an architect are not required for most installations.
However, if you live in a listed building or a conservation area, you may have to seek permission for an outdoor oven from the relevant heritage body or local authority.
Courtyard's are ideal for entertaining and, being low-maintenance, are much easier to look after than gardens. If you have doors opening from your room on to the courtyard, eating outside becomes much easier, and while your children might miss their football goals, they will almost certainly be interested in an outdoor wood-burning oven - the newly fashionable addition to alfresco living.
You can build wood-fired ovens inside or outside and you can cook pretty much anything in them, although they are primarily associated with baking pizzas.
Orchard ovens, the UK's sole importer of Valoriani wood-burning ovens which are handmade in Regello, near Florence, provides a full installation service for its ovens.
The bonus of having a wood-fired oven outside is that it can take the place of a barbecue and will give out enough warmth for you to be able to use your courtyard right into the autumn. A wood-fired oven is just as good inside, giving a pleasingly continental look to your kitchen. Wood-fired ovens take between 20 and 30 minutes to heat up and as they are gaining heat you can use them for things that need lower temperatures. Their maximum temperature is 500-600c, which can cook a pizza in 55 seconds.
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