My Wood-Fired Oven

Back when we lived in Colombia, I built myself an oven to bake good bread and pizza. It was my “survival package”. When we returned to Germany, I didn’t want to live without a wood-fired oven anymore.

The build

Inspired by Forno Bravo and The Brick Oven Company, I built a Pompeii oven from firebricks. I drew the plan myself, based on a template. The base slab is reinforced concrete, topped with a layer of vermiculite insulating concrete. For the arches at the oven entrance I cut wooden templates from film-faced plywood. We fitted the last, almost vertical bricks of the dome with the help of a red exercise ball. On top sits a layer of ceramic fibre insulation, and a tall stainless steel chimney carries the smoke up above the roof ridge.

Right at the start we learned a lesson: while cutting the industrial-grade firebricks, the diamond blade of the angle grinder overheated and melted away. Only with water cooling, drop by drop, could we cut the bricks cleanly.

My “amigo” David and my daughters helped me. The first small fire was only for curing the oven, and soon after, the first pizza came out of it.

What comes out of the oven

Since then, our family cooks a lot in it: pizza of course, Turkish pide, bread and focaccia, empanadas, lemon chicken, a leg of lamb with chickpeas, fish, tomahawk steak and, in autumn, roasted chestnuts.