One Liverpool-based restaurant owner has been so impressed with his first Valoriani gas-fired pizza oven that he has already ordered another one for November and may want a third in the near future!
It would seem the Igloo 120 gas-fired pizza oven instantly made its mark, on the proprietors of Red and Blue Restaurants, leading to the decision to buy a slightly larger Igloo 140 as the second oven through the door.
Jonathan Poole is the Merseyside restaurateur behind four restaurants which vary in nature and type of cuisine, being a tapas restaurant, a brasserie, an Italian small-plates venue and an all-day café serving a delicious Middle Eastern menu.
Whilst the Italian eatery, Bacaro, had served pizzettes, the new Igloo 120 pizza oven was introduced so it could then offer full-sized pizzas to hungry diners. This is now part of the menu offer at the Woodside Ferry Village food hall, located within the Woodside ferry terminal building in Birkenhead on the Wirral.
The second oven will be a feature of a brand-new leisure facility, scheduled to open in December on Liverpool’s famous Duke Street. This will be a themed venue that offers younger customers the experience they crave as an alternative to alcohol consumption, in keeping with the ethos of venues such as London-based ‘Swingers’.
Whilst the new Red and Blue leisure-focused venue will not offer crazy golf, it will provide high-end pin bowling plus food – the latter being solely provided by the Valoriani Igloo 140 pizza oven.
This decision has been based on experience. The chefs at Bacaro found their new oven top-notch in every respect, with the heat-retaining oven creating the perfect blister on the dough, which in this case is half sourdough and half standard dough. When this is cooked in the Valoriani oven, it makes for amazing pizza, served with a beautiful speckling of charcoal. Bacaro put this down to the dome of the oven and the huge flame that can be used within.
Experienced chefs were brought in to help train some of the venues’ chefs, although Red and Blue Restaurants’ executive chef has worked with pizza ovens before, whilst employed at Piccolinos. A little development work led to a slight adjustment to the dough recipe, to suit the higher temperature of the new oven. This has resulted in simply stunning pizzas.
“We are very happy with the oven we decided to buy”, says Jonathan. Poole. “We had considered some others, but the quality of the Valoriani surpasses anything else on the market. It will easily meet the demand our food outlets generate, retaining heat superbly, and it will cook brilliant pizza in a matter of minutes.”
The original selection of the Valoriani oven was based on conversations held a few years ago, when nothing really came to fruition. When a new vision came into being, Jonathan Poole rekindled the relationship with Valoriani and opted to work with Valoriani UK as its pizza oven supplier.
Jonathan Poole says, “Our experience of Valoriani UK has been excellent. They have delivered on every promise and we haven’t had a single issue. We knew we were in safe hands straight away and the oven was switched on the second day after delivery and has been great ever since.
“The ovens are on show and a real talking point. They entice people into the restaurant, as they can see the dome and are inquisitive to know what’s going on. Customers love to watch the pizzas being made, as it is a form of visual entertainment. We are absolutely over-the-moon with our gas-fired Valoriani pizza ovens. They could not have suited our business any better.”