THE ART OF WOOD FIRED COOKING

 Ah! Pizza! There is nothing better than the delicious aroma and taste of a freshly baked pizza, but that flat thing covered in gluey cheese and synthetic sauce you pulled out from the supermarket freezer doesn't count! Connoisseurs agree that only pizzas cooked over a wood-burning fire are true pizzas. The smell and flavor imparted by the smoking wood is as essential as the tomatoes, cheese and basil.

 The origins of pizza are obscure, but many historians think that Roman soldiers in the first and second century bought back the idea from Palestine, where they had been eating a local Jewish food, matzo, an unleavened flat bread. Believing they could improve on it, they added oil, herbs and cheese and called it a picea, which describes the blackening of the crust caused by the fire underneath. However, it was not until Christopher Colombus showed up with the tomato from Mexico, that pizza became the dish that we are so familiar with today.

The Verace Pizza Napoletana is an international non-profit trade association dedicated to promoting the culinary tradition of the Neapolitan pizza, with its requisite preparation, ingredients and manner of cooking. Renowned throughout the world, they are the definitive last word in the art of pizza making and realize the importance of wood and wood-burning ovens in pizza preparation. Mention the words gas or electric ovens around this association and you will be banished quicker than the time it takes to say, 'I'd like a pizza alla Margherita, please'.

  According to the Verace Pizza Napoletana, the cooking of the pizza must take place on the surface of the oven and not in a pan or container. The oven must be bell-shaped, made of a special brick, and have a volcanic-stone oven floor. The oven must be fired with wood and kindling only.

 The technique of cooking with wood fired ovens has been utilized for centuries across the European continent, with large communal ovens to service an entire village.  With the development of more efficient materials and manufacturing processes, the option of individual family-sized ovens was realized.  The ovens were used for preparation and cooking all types of foods for every meal.  Whether it is seared steaks and lamb chops at high temperatures or slowly baked breads, the wood fired oven is an extremely versatile medium of cooking.