I never really thought the wood I planned on using in my oven would make a difference. But my good friend Jeremy (of LDV Pizza Bar fame) is a real wood connoisseur and oven expert – I had proactively stockpiled an insane amount of wood, it just wasn’t the best.

The thing with wood-fired ovens, especially if your making pizza is temperature. You want to get that baby right up there in the 600 – 800 degree mark and maintain it. Firstly, there’s a big difference between how soft and hard wood burns. Secondly, you’ll want to make sure the blocks of wood are cured (at least six months) and of a consistent size so you can really control how they burn.

We typically get the oven up-and-running a few hours before any event so when the hungry arrive they get fed straight away and if there’s any problems we have a small window to address anything that isn’t quite right.

Although Apple, Cherry, Oak and Birch are said to be the best, you could get by with anything really. I’ve even resorted to chucking coal in the oven to get it hot enough. If at first you don’t succeed, improvise!

Most my wood is scavenged but there’s lots of people that will supply the goods on Kijiji.