I have had the pleasure of working with five different wood fired ovens in the past two and a half years, mostly Alan Scott designs with the exception of the current oven which is a Mugnaini (pronounced moohn-ya-ni). No matter what the name, I have found a rhythm with each oven and a relationship forms - though none of the ovens are my own personal oven, I feel they have become a part of me.
The Mugnaini that I use currently at Tastebud, I must say, has been the most intimate. Early bakes, long bakes, hot bakes... I have spent a lot of time in front of this oven (on my tippy toes none-the-less!) sweating, smiling, and cursing when baking upwards of 960 bagels (at the most!) 70 pizzas, and oh....maybe 200 pitas. Even when I feel I couldn't slide another pizza off the peel towards the sizzling flame Mark is generally right there reminding me there's a good 20 left so get moving! (Not really, he's usually pretty compassionate in those times). The Alan Scott ovens I used were at the Flat Rock Village Bakery (FRVB) in Flat Rock, NC, Camp Arrowhead in Tuxedo, NC and West First in Hendersonville, NC. During my internship at the FRVB, I was trained to bake rustic wood fired breads and pizzas. At that moment when Scott Unfried showed me how to light the oven, scrape out the ash, mop it, and slide each loaf off the peel and into the dark corners of the oven...right then, I knew, I would never go back.
Moving to Maine in a couple months I am in a bit of a panic wondering what I will do, how I will manage for a bit without one and wonder how soon I can build something to suit me until I have one of my own, and well, Dave and I put our heads together and came up with a solution. We will set to build a cob oven as soon as we arrive and would love to invite any and all people who are interested in the process to join. This way I can keep my fire burning! (Stay tuned for time and location of this exciting event!)
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