Pop-up dining is on the increase with more hospitality businesses than ever choosing to make the most of the summer months by creating a new food offering for their customers. To support this growing trend of acting on culinary impulse, Valoriani, the manufacturer of Italy’s finest commercial and residential wood-fired pizza ovens, has the ultimate ‘ready-to-go’, pop-up pizza oven which is weatherproof and suitable for all cooking situations.
Drawing on the pop-up restaurant trend, Valoriani’s Fornino 75 – part of the Valoriani To-Go range – can be the perfect ally for restaurants, pubs and hotels seeking an additional income stream. The neat little oven has the aesthetics to suit a super-cool rooftop location and the wheels to work in any patio setting. Its compact size takes up little space in an urban beer garden, whilst its DEFRA accreditation means it can be operated anywhere, even in Smoke Control Areas.
All the restaurant, pub or hotel owner need do, to create a pop-up pizza strand to the business, is keep some ready-to-burn wood in store, have the right ingredients in the fridge, and pop some dough balls into the freezer if they wish. Then, the minute the sun shines, they can get the Valoriani Fornino 75 oven up to temperature in ???? and start serving not just pizzas, but also other wood-fired food besides.
The Valoriani Fornino 75 can offer chefs pizza’s equivalent of ‘frying tonight’, perhaps, in its case, ‘firing tonight’. At its price point, it can also provide them with a means to test the market for pizza in their locality, to perhaps assess whether or not to invest in a built-in outdoor oven.
As Andrew Manciocchi from Valoriani UK says: “For some hospitality business owners, pop-ups are an economical way to enter a new restaurant landscape and to test products, menus and eating environments.
“The Fornino 75 is incredibly versatile and is an excellent option for a business wanting to introduce a ‘pop up’ food option. It’s also a great way to get an honest, instant reaction from patrons and we’re confident that customers will be delighted with the Fornino 75’s capabilities.”
The stunning wood-fired oven, available in cream, red or black, or bespoke colours, offers the drama that comes with cooking food with a real flame and provides an authentic taste and feel of the Mediterranean – a perfect combination for enticing punters who have popped out for a drink on a hot summer’s evening. Adding a food offering like this can encourage customers to make a night of it and increase their spend, giving the patron valuable additional business through the till.
As with any smaller oven, the heat. retention is not that of a bespoke build, but in tests, the heat retention qualities set the Valoriani 75 apart from all other small ovens on the market.
Made from naturally quarried ‘cotto clay’ (found in the Valoriani family quarry in Reggello, Florence and offering fabulous refractory firing properties) and created to a design that has never been surpassed, this oven retains heat for longer, making it fuel-efficient and free of cold spots or temperature dips that can ruin a pizza. It is this same clay that enables a Fornino 75 to get up to temperature fast and stay warm enough overnight to serve guests breakfast pizzas the next morning.
As Andrew Manciocchi adds: “Customers are looking for wow-factors and the nation loves pizza. A pop-up oven is the perfect answer to the variable British weather that can make pre-planned events a damp squib, allowing a venue to waste nothing, but react with immediacy if the weather is great. With an iconic and striking Fornino 75 turning out two to three 12-inch pizzas at a time, and cooking them in just a few minutes, a venue can really harvest some strong revenue with this asset in its catering armoury.”