March 2018 Digital Issue

EQUIPMENT
A LA CARTE
Operators look to technology innovation
and tradition for their ovens of choice
BY DENISE DEVEAU
The new baking lab at George
Brown College in Toronto (inset);
the Baker’s Pride double-stack
pizza oven at Vancouver’s Bufala
(top); and the tandoor oven used at
Vij’s and My Shanti (below)
Ovens are a culinary mainstay,
whether it’s for cooking pizzas,
roasting meats, preparing
casseroles or baking pastries.
Yet the oven landscape is as
varied as the products that go into them.
There’s the high-tech wizardry of combiand
rapid-cook ovens; large-batch baking
ovens that cook bread and pastries to perfection;
countertop toaster, multi-purpose
and pizza-conveyor ovens; or specialty
ovens for ethnic cuisine.
An operator’s comparison shopping
could include a checklist of important
features: wood-fired, gas-fired, electric or
charcoal; small or large footprint; vented
or ventless; portable or fixed; programmable
or non-programmable — the list
goes on.
The right oven
for the right space
Executive chef Alessandro Vianello of
Gooseneck Hospitality in Vancouver,
says oven choices for the various types
of operations depend on various factors
— from power supply to menu offerings.
A mainstay in the Bufala pizza operations
is a double-stack Baker’s Pride oven.
“There are so many variables when picking
a deck oven. [For example] when we
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