Archive for category Pizza Ovens
Pane e Vino’s Chef Bruno Quercini, Emilio Mitidieri, and The MAM Brick Oven
Posted by Ben in Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Equipment Videos, Restaurant Videos on April 21, 2008
We got a chance to hang out with our long-time friend Chef Bruno Quercini of Pane e Vino.
Chef Bruno comes from a long line of chefs in Italy. He’s been cooking as long as he can remember and says he received his best culinary training from his mother– learning all her cooking secrets and family recipes by age 13. He’s made Pane e Vino a San Francisco favorite since it opened in 1991. Not only does he make the most perfect risotto (it literally melts with flavor in your mouth), he also makes an incredible pizza that he tops with his very own house-cured meats.
As you might imagine, the highest quality tools are a priority for Chef Bruno. For slicing his meats, he uses a fiery red vintage-style hand-cranked slicer. For his pizza, he uses a wood-burning MAM 505 whose refractory surface imparts his thin crust pies with an authentic Neapolitan-style browned crust in just 2 and 1/2 minutes!
In the 1980’s wood burning brick ovens were popular for cooking and finishing a lot of different dishes. Today we’re seeing a resurgence in the demand for wood burning ovens due to the increasingly popularity of that Neapolitan style, thin crust pizza! Some would now argue that it’s the best of the wood-burning, and the only way to do a thin crust pizza, is with the famous MAM brick pizza oven.
The MAM oven floor is constructed from cement Fondu La Farge, composed of 40% alumina, a mixture vibrated into refractory molds which can withstand heat up to 1350 degrees Celsius or 2462 degrees Fahrenheit. The MAM oven comes in 3 different sizes (30”, 39”, and 55” diameters). You can get it with wood or with gas.
A typical wood burning MAM will consume about 12 logs per day. If you prefer to use gas but still wish to impart a wood flavor to your food you can soak wood-chips in water and place them in a perforated stainless steel container and place them on the oven deck. Chow Restaurants in San Francisco, and El Caserio in the Silver Lake area in LA use wood-burning MAM ovens.
Blue Wave Pizza and The Vx5 Oven Custom-Made with Remco™ Technologies
Posted by Ben in Emiliomiti News, Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Videos on March 19, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, we paid a visit to Bill Gardner’s Blue Wave Pizza in Narragansett, Rhode Island to see how he was faring with his infra-red oven, the new Vx5 custom-made for Emiliomiti with Remco™ technologies. During summer months, 900 beachhouses fill up with vacationing New England families and they all come to Blue Wave for pizza. Bill chose the Vx5 with the goal of efficiently meeting that volume.
And efficient he has been, and in more ways than just cranking out quick pizzas. Because of its revolutionary technology, the Vx5 uses just a fraction of the energy of a conventional gas oven (70,000 BTUs per hour)— and because it does not require a hood, the AC doesn’t get sucked out. Mr. Gardner’s monthly energy bill comes to $450, while a regular gas oven energy bill would be at least $1500, a savings of over $1000 per month alone— which makes a real difference in this time of rising eneryg costs. The Vx5 is truly green!
Bill’s beachtown, surfer-themed pizzeria turns out lovely margheritas, creative shrimp alfredo pies as well as local favorite hot weiner pizzas. He serves organic, fair trade coffee from Santa Cruz’s Surf City Coffee Company.
And in addition to enjoying fresh tasty pizza in a jiffy, his customers can feel good that they’re patronizing an establishment that is investing in green technologies.
The Vx5 is 5×5 ft., can crank out 250 pies per hour and due to its rotating deck, anyone can operate it. Pretty soon we’ll see fast food pizzerias using it!
“We’ve had at least 50 people tell us it’s the best pizza they’ve ever had,” says Mr. Gardner beaming. The pizzeria opened last summer and was an instant success.
Emiliomiti Pizza Cookoff and The Vx5 Oven Custom-Made with Remco™ Technologies
Posted by Ben in Culinary Events, Emiliomiti News, Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Videos on March 18, 2008
We recently tried out the Vx5 oven, custom-made for Emiliomiti with Remco™ technologies. in our San Francisco test kitchen with our pizzaiolo friends, Chefs Giulio Tempesta, Giancarlo Bortolotti, and Marc Vogel. Using the only infrared brick carousel oven technology in the world, these masters produced delicious Neapolitan style pizzas, among other delicacies, in only the time it takes, well…take a bit out of your first slice.
Not ones for all work and no play, we decided to have a party with the world’s favorite food.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Remco, go here, email us at or call us at 415.621.1909.