Piccolo’s Story

The creation of Piccolo, our latest addition to the My-Woodfiredoven range.

When showing and demonstrating our wood fired pizza and gourmet ovens at shows and expos, many people would say that they would not use such a big oven as they don’t have enough space or time. They believed they would not use it  much as it is too complicated to get a fire up and running.

So, we thought we’d design a really easy to use and compact oven. An addition to our range of wood fired ovens so that we have the right pizza oven for everyone.

Giuseppe: “I wanted to create a smaller oven that is at least as good as our larger ovens. And wood fired. To me wood fired cooking is not comparable with cooking in gas ovens. Gas ovens may cook your food well, but they miss that charm that wood fire gives, and above all with gas ovens you miss out on that authentic wood fired flavour!

I wanted a compact oven but not so small that you can only do a small pizza at the time. It had to fit at least a very large pizza or good sized cooking dish. I also wanted it to heat up fast and retain the heat when cooking multiple pizzas in a row. And it had to be a cooking oven too: easy to cook your dinner in, instead of using your kitchen oven. Saving on energy and adding flavour.

First I designed and developed a compact oven with a pellet burner. But, after long testing with many different brands of pellets, I just couldn’t get the results I was looking for: the pellets do not burn as efficient as hardwood does. Meaning you have to keep feeding pellets very often, and when cooking a few pizzas in a row the temperature of the cooking floor would drop. And some pellets have a poor smell that is transmitted to the food.

So, I decided my compact oven had to be an authentic wood fired oven. No gas, no pellets, but the real thing: wood fire.

I also wanted it to be so easy to use that really everyone can use it, no experience with wood fired cooking needed at all.

Turning a pizza or a cooking dish around in a small oven is not easy as the space is of course more limited than in a larger oven. So I decided that the cooking floor should be rotating instead.”

And together with our 2 Engineer sons, who we dearly thank for lending their engineering skills to our project, we worked for over 2 years on all the features that make Piccolo one of the most versatile table top ovens.
From the properly engineered rotating oven floor, the radiating baffle with various openings to ensure the best heat circulation inside the oven chamber, the built in fire separator to ensure even flame distribution whilst also ensuring the wood and ash will not fall on the food, a good sized wood feeding door and easy to remove large wood tray with manageable air vents to control the temperature in the oven, to the floating outer shell of the dome which sits off the main dome so it remains cool during cooking. And the same for the chosen oven door handels: they won’t get hot.

We tested every single detail over and over again. We did not want it to be just another portable oven, it had to be the finest compact wood fired oven! With smart and handy features for ease of use. So that you also can have fantastic Italian wood fired pizza and wood fired meals even if you have limited space or time.

The Piccolo is equipped with 5 key features:

The radiating baffleis engineered to direct the flow of heat over the internal cavity, distributing the heat through the cooking chamber and only then back out of the chimney.

The rotating cooking surfaceis motorised, ensuring every dish is cooked uniformly to perfection.

The air ventsallow for variable flow rate, giving you ultimate control over the temperature.

The built in fire separatoris designed to let the fire do it’s thing without wood or ash falling on the food in the oven.

Finally, the stylish outer shell is floating and remains cool to the touch even when in use.

Versatility, efficiency and style, all in one compact pizza oven. That is Piccolo.