Wood-fire Pizza ....You can smell the difference

The crackling noise of the CTX machine made in my early days at the pizzeria in M/S Carnival Triumph for my short stint had always given me nightmares, opening a pre-made Pizza bases were lot easier but the taste of those were just pleasant and never teased for more, but my presumptions of what a pizza is and has always  been deferring when I had the importunity to travel to Milan or Rome i had to make it a point to have one of these stringy monsters of calorie,
Pizza the word means "to String" I remember that even till this very day thanks to Chef Kiran  at Taj who was my very first chef and I owe a lot to him, My times at Philadelphia was no different the Pizzas for the local  pizzeria at 34th in Market Street have always been my "Day Off delicacies" ducked on my Couch with PS2 it had been my favorite companion,
There is a fair bit of history on Pizzas which I happened to stumble upon whilst i researched the inroads of Scallion Pancakes for the Peking Duck, there's a fact that the great traveler Marco Polo wanted his chef to replicate the pancakes crispy bread what he had in china and hence the Pizza was born not to forget it later got upgraded when tomatoes arrived from the Latin world,

Wood-fired ovens, also known as wood ovens . There are two types of wood-fired ovens: "black ovens" and "white ovens". Black ovens are heated by burning wood in a chamber and the food is cooked in that same chamber alongside the fire while it is still going, or in the heated chamber after the fire and coals have been swept out. White ovens are heated by heat transfer from a separate combustion chamber and flue-gas path, and thus the oven remains "white", or clean from ash. 

Wood-fired ovens are distinct from wood cook-stoves which have a hot cooking surface for pots and pans, like on a gas or electric stove. A wood cookstove may also have an oven but it is separate from the fire chamber. Regardless of material they all have an oven chamber consisting of a floor (or hearth), a dome, and an entry (oven opening).

Unlike modern household gas or electric ovens which provide a nearly constant cooking temperature, a black oven oven is typically heated only once during the firing stage (the combustion of wood inside the oven chamber). After the coals are raked out, the oven gradually cools over a period of hours or even days (in the case of a well-insulated oven). Immediately after a firing, the oven temperature may easily exceed 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The mass of the oven acts as a 'thermal battery', which slowly releases heat over time. The retained heat in the oven may be used to cook multiple batches of bread, or alternatively, foods requiring different temperatures can be cooked in succession as the temperature of the oven slowly drops. This practice maximizes the efficiency of the oven, by fully utilizing the thermal energy stored during the firing.

Regardless the Information above the pizzas made on a black wood fired oven to me tastes far superior, as the combustion of the woods and the (flavor imparted) plays a pivotal role in the taste and texture, the maintenance is sure a key element and its quite easy if you plan and with a simple mob stick .

The Pizza base mixture also needs a bit of tweak and sauce has a lot left to be decided, Yet after constant jabbing with eureka moments the Pizzas made at "Yalla Yalla "  Radisson BLU GRT chennai has a lot offer the palate more than just the taste the aroma and the pure aura of one delicacy made in different methods.

And if you are health conscious we have introduced the "Salad Pizza" and that's another blog all together

Wood Fire Pizza Menu at Radisson BLU GRT Chennai.