A Valoriani wood fired oven is now creating pizza excellence for one new mobile catering business, right under the noses of a leading pizza franchise chain and, in the words of its owner, “showing them what real pizza looks like.”
Cheshire-based mobile food business, Noughts and Crosses, based in Sandbach, purchased a wood fired Fornino 75 oven back in June, incorporating this into a trailer that could head out to food festivals and events.
Owner Mark Russell has been an entrepreneur in other fields but had always wanted to open a food business. Having attended a few festivals, he noticed that wood-fired pizza went down a storm so, having founded a pizzeria business based around a gas-fired Valoriani Igloo 120, he expanded it, by investing in his own mobile wood fired pizza oven, again turning to Valoriani UK.
The factors he looked for in his oven were reliability, heat-retention, speed of service and capacity. If a queue was waiting, he wanted to serve it quickly, whilst also meeting the expectations of pizza buyers wanting a quality pizza.
He turned to Valoriani, because he recognised that it is a brand that is a cut-above in the world of wood ovens, making ovens that are extremely well-built and able to retain heat and heat up extremely quickly. Having done the sums, he also saw that the oven would pay for itself fairly quickly, because of its longevity and reliability.
Valoriani assisted Mr Russell by building the mobile oven and its surround on-site for him. His Fornino 75 oven has so far been at events as diverse as a horse show and weddings and at venues as different as pubs and charity centres. As Mark Russell says, “the venture is going from strength to strength.”
Back at base, his faith in Valoriani has been further repaid in his pizzeria. Training staff to use his gas-fired oven has been much simpler, so manning the pizzeria has been easy. When it comes to his mobile wood-fired oven, on the other hand, he has turned to two Italians, who are making a huge success of things. As he says, “I am no chef”.
When asked what he thinks of Valoriani he says: “I think it’s a great product and, if used properly, worth the outlay. The customer service is brilliant and the team can be flexible with pricing. If you want a company that will be with you every step of the way, Valoriani UK is the company to go for. They are always at the end of the phone and no problem is too big or small for them to assist with.”