Hotfire Pizza is, at the moment, a 10-year journey beginning with the harvesting of a wild sourdough culture in April 2011, affectionately named, “Sourdough2000.” Shortly after, I began learning what I could about what makes my perfect pizza. Every bread-making technique I acquired led to better pizza, but nothing close to what I wanted. My home oven simply did not create the intense heat needed for great pizza.
The name, “Hotfire Pizza” comes from my oldest daughter, who was 2 or 3 at the time and saw flames rising above the edge of my modified Weber Grill. When she said, “Hotfire Pizza,” it stuck with me as the one key ingredient in making great pizza. That modified Weber Grill allowed me to make some pretty great pizza, but still not great enough, and the grill was limited in space and was a nightmare to control temperature.
As I entered 2020, I began researching traditional brick ovens, but found the permanence of one to be a drawback, so I looked at a number of stainless steel ovens. That brings us to today. I finally settled on a simple, moderately priced oven that definitely does the one thing I need it to do: allow me to reach and maintain the hot fire needed. The oven, combined with classic ingredients makes my perfect pizza.
