Installation guide

Pompeii Oven Instructions
© Forno Bravo, LLC 2007. All Rights Served. Ver. 1.2 6
The History of Brick Ovens
Some Background from James Bairey
The Pompeii Oven project was born during a trip to
Sorrento and Naples -- the birthplace of pizza, as well as
the home of both Pompeii and Herculaneum. I had been
interested in wood-fired ovens for a number of years, and
had built a number of them, both from brick and from
modular oven kits. Like most visitors, I went looking
forward to the pizza and to seeing Pompeii, but I was not
prepared for how impressive both would be.
I had heard that ovens had been discovered at Pompeii,
but at the same time I had read in various books and
articles that implied that the ancient ovens were simpler
than modern brick ovens, so I wasn't expecting much.
Instead, I found that the ovens in Pompeii are not only well
preserved, they also demonstrate excellent engineering
skill.
The ancient ovens were used inside shops, which also
served as retail stores. The ovens were well shaped, well
insulated, well vented, and beautifully built. The cooking
floors were made from tempered terracotta tiles, about 2"
thick, and the domes were round, and spherically shaped.
The domes were built using bricks set on their flat side
and were covered with about 1" of mortar, then insulated
with a type of clay. The neighborhoods where the ovens
were located were also home to food shops, which had
insulated terracotta trays for serving both hot food and
cold drinks. My guess is that the pizza and drink you could
find in ancient Pompeii was probably better than what you
find in today's shopping mall pizzerias.
In further research, I have gone on to see that there are a
number of examples of Roman craftsmanship using
traditional materials, such as brick, concrete, and glass,
which modern artisans do not yet fully understood, and
cannot accurately re-create to this day. For example, there
is a glass cameo technique that has not been re-created
to this day. In fact, many of the "modern" ovens you find in
the Italian countryside, typically built before the second
war, are made from stone, not brick and terracotta --
giving them a very rough and rustic quality. For example,
the stone cooking floor on these stone ovens is very
uneven, making cooking an adventure. In a sense, like
many other things, the brick oven took a brief step
backward after the fall of the Roman Empire.
There are 33 brick ovens uncovered in Pompeii, and it
was instructive to see that a number of them are in varying
degrees of disrepair, which by luck show how the ovens
were built. It is possible to see the edges of the cooking
surfaces, the oven domes exposed from under their clay
insulation, the oven vents and chimneys, and even a
cross-section of the brickwork that made up the dome
itself.
The Modern Wood-Fired Oven
Later, after having spent hours with my head inside the
ovens at the excavations, my family and I ventured out at
night to eat some of the world's best pizza.
The Neapolitans have elevated pizza to an art form. In
fact, they are so proud of their culinary heritage, they have
just requested that the European Union regulate Pizza
Napoletana the same way it controls Champagne, Chianti,
Mozzarella, Parmesan, and certain types of olive oil. In
and around Pompeii and Naples, I was struck not only by
the great pizza, but also by the fact that the ovens were so
similar to the ancient Pompeii ovens that I had seen during
my days of exploring. After a few evenings of talking with
restaurant owners and pizzaioli, I hatched the idea to re-
create the Pompeii Oven, and make it a project that could
be done by hobbyists, enthusiasts, and builders around
the world, and started working on the plans.