Frank Paolino Jr

Photo book · Wood-fired

Chef’s Table: Pizza and Pizzaiolo

Pizza Party — handmade pizzas in a wood-fired oven. A 29-page photo book of fire, dough, wine, cheese, stews and the friends and family who make every pizza night a story.

Open the book The brick oven story
Book cover: “Pizza Party — Handmade Pizzas in a Wood Fired Oven,” with a photo of a pizzaiolo tending a pizza in a Forno Classico wood-fired oven
Title page with the line “Every Pizza Party tells a story of food, wine, friends and love,” an introduction, and three small photos: a wood-fired oven glowing at dusk, a card reading “Pizza is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” and a wine bottle beside the oven.

Title spread

Every Pizza Party tells a story

Pizza cooking in the oven. 10 seconds. Taken out and placed on a peel. Sprinkled with oil and cheese.

Great cooking always began at home. Great ingredients and time-honored recipes create amazing aromas and mouth-watering flavors.

Let’s take a look at pizza: In America, it is a convenience food. Quick and easy to prepare and universally loved, it is now an American staple. But can it be a gourmet food as well? We are going to show you pizza done in the Napolitano style, Napolitano referring to Naples, Italy, birthplace of pizza.

“PIZZA is proof that GOD LOVES US AND WANTS US TO BE HAPPY”

A brick-arched wood-fired oven with flames at the back and a pepperoni pizza cooking on the floor, beside a grid of close-ups of pizzas baking, bubbling and blistering in the oven.

Pages 2–3

Pizza in the Oven

Watching the Pizza cook, seeing the dough rise, the crust blacken and the top brown is a fantastic experience. Smelling it is even better. And eating Pizza made with your own hands is the best.

Four smiling young women in a kitchen stretching pizza dough, and friends proudly holding up finished pizzas they made themselves.

Pages 4–5

Gatherings

Food + Friends = Fun. The next group of pictures shows lots of people cooking and socializing. Pizza ovens make great gathering spaces.

Lots of love goes into each hand-made Pizza.

Collage of family and friends at pizza nights: groups posing in front of the house and oven, toppings laid out on an outdoor table, a couple sharing a glass of wine, guests relaxing on a patio, and two women smiling beside a smoking brick oven.

Pages 6–7

Photos only — family and friends around the oven.

A homemade brick oven at dusk with tall flames shooting out of its mouth, next to an orange page explaining how the oven is fired.

Pages 8–9

Fire

Fire is an essential and critical part of the pizza making process. Each oven firing takes over an hour to heat the bricks to about 800 degrees, which is the ideal temperature for cooking Pizza in about 2 minutes.

The soot from the previous firing starts to burn off after about 30 minutes, starting at the top of the oven and working its way down the sides, exposing the red brick. This is known as the “bloom” and it tells you the oven is hot.

A bowl overflowing with wine corks, a bottle of Chateau Edmus and a full glass of red on a barrel top, and wine bottles posed beside the wood-fired oven.

Pages 10–11

Wine

  • Chateau Edmus from Bordeaux
  • Pinot Noir from California
  • Gevrey-Chambertin from the Burgundy region of France
  • Barolo from Italy
  • A classic Chianti
  • Valpolicella from Italy
  • Cabernet Sauvignon from Santa Barbara or Napa

Pizza and wine go together. I prefer bold red wines that can hold their own with Pizza. Experience has taught me that the more wine that is served, the more people will enjoy my company.

The House Wine is always Chateau Edmus and always plentiful.

Uncle Joe topping his first handmade pizza with zucchini, friends and family at the outdoor prep table, and young pizza makers smiling with the pizzas they made.

Pages 12–13

First pies and old pros

Uncle Joe makes his first handmade Pizza.

Rob Sasena is a pro. Being Italian is a plus.

A granite counter crowded with toppings in bowls, grated cheese, sauce and a vase of orange flowers; balls of dough rising on a kitchen island; and sliced onions in a cast-iron pan.

Pages 14–15

Preparation

Preparation is part of the fun. Pizza dough, made in advance and given time to rise and develop flavor. Pepperoni, tomatoes, prosciutto, mushrooms, olives, all topped by raw cheddar to make a fabulous Pizza.

Onions simmered in the heat of the first firing.

Pizzas waiting on wooden peels on a prep table, and a woman sliding a pizza into the domed wood-fired oven with a long peel; large type reads “Pizzaiolo — One who makes Pizza using a Pizza peel.”

Pages 16–17

Pizzaiolo

We generally cook one pizza at a time, with each person cooking their own so they can enjoy the experience of making fabulous food. Pizzas take about 2 minutes to cook. You always need a fire in the oven to cook the top of the Pizza.

I give expert cooking advice, like “you know when it is done when it looks good enough to eat” (sorry Yogi). But when I am serious, I encourage Pizza cooked until the edges are blackened by the fire, which means the crust is fully cooked. Everyone likes crispy crusts.

Once the Pizza is taken out of the oven, we always eat family style, which means we all enjoy a variety of Pizzas from different Pizzaiolos. Most “Pizza Nights” last about 3 hours, which pass very fast when you are having this much fun.

Two Pizzas cooked, two “on deck” waiting their turn in the Pizza Oven.

Pizzaiolo — One who makes Pizza using a Pizza peel.

Pizza makers proudly showing off finished pizzas on peels: a man in a red and black rugby shirt grinning by the oven, and Karin, Jeff, Hannah and Morgan each holding up their creations.

Pages 18–19

Proud pizza makers

Every Pizzaiola is rightfully proud of their delicious creations. Showing off the finished pizza to the assembled friends and family is an important part of the adventure.

Karin, Jeff, Hannah and Morgan all are proud Pizza makers!

A whole roast chicken in a pan inside the terracotta-domed wood-fired oven, and a long table spread with cheeses, charcuterie and orchids.

Pages 20–21

Oven Cooking · C’est Cheese!

No respectable family gathering would be complete without a sampling of cheese. You will find cheddar, but also Gruyère, Comté, Mimolette, Ashen Goat, Époisses. Add a few Mission figs wrapped in prosciutto, then cooked like bacon and we have a nice hors d’oeuvres plate.

A board of cheeses with grapes and a bottle of Sanford rosé, small plates of salad and appetizers, and the terracotta wood-fired oven wrapped in a big red bow.

Pages 22–23

Oven Love

A collection of cheese along with local Santa Barbara wine from Sanford wineries. There is nothing Sideways about this wine!

Oven Love

The Forno Classico terracotta dome oven with a roaring fire, and photos of it being installed in the backyard in Santa Barbara, including two men standing beside the newly installed oven.

Pages 24–25

Forno Classico

After making 2 ovens myself, I learned one thing: Buy one from an expert. Giuseppe Crisa, oven maker at Forno Classico, makes a wonderful oven, perhaps the best oven. He delivered it to Santa Barbara with a crane.

Glossy red Italian clay pots with lids, and stews of vegetables and tomatoes cooking in the clay pots inside the oven over glowing embers.

Pages 26–27

Stews

Clay pots, like these from Italy, are preferred for the best stews. They can withstand high oven temperatures of 900 degrees, and don’t rust like cast iron. Plus they are beautiful, and you can store the food in the refrigerator, reheat it on a gas stove and serve it at the table!

After the Pizzas have been made, I like to slide a stew into the oven for overnight cooking. This generally means from 10 PM to 7 AM. Beef stew, vegetable stew and even tomato stew all become wonderfully flavorful after spending the night in the oven.

Steaks with rosemary searing in cast iron, a roast chicken, spatchcocked chicken on a grill, potatoes and steaks cooking over flames inside the wood-fired oven.

Pages 28–29

Beyond pizza

You can cook anything in the Pizza oven that you cook in a “regular” oven. The Pizza oven is just more fun. Much more fun.

Steaks cook great at high temperatures.

Back cover: a couple relaxing on an outdoor sofa with glasses of wine, captioned “An F&A Production”

Back cover

An F&A Production

Want to talk pizza, ovens, or a seat at the next pizza night?

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