Goodbye inconsistent products, hello savings, and efficiency.

Sponsored by New York Brick Ovens

Labor shortages are a constant challenge for restaurant operators, who must constantly figure out how to do more with less. For pizza restaurants, the secret to optimizing labor is in the oven itself.

Traditional wood-fired ovens have long been a staple in authentic pizzerias. Unfortunately for restaurant operators in the current climate, mastering the skill of cooking in these ovens is a slow and costly process since traditional brick ovens require skilled laborers to rotate the pies throughout the oven continually. That is why the revolving brick oven is today’s solution for labor savings and consistency.

“I trained using a standard 8-foot by 8-foot wood-fired oven,” says Andrew Scudera, instructor at Goodfellas Pizza School of New York. “The amount of training you would have to invest into an employee to learn how to use the equipment would take weeks and weeks. In the meantime, the product would be very inconsistent.”

Scudera used wood-fired ovens for the first 17 years of his 30-year career. Then came a game-changer: New York Brick Ovens. Combining modern technology and old-world tradition, New York Brick Ovens has several oven models to meet a variety of restaurant layouts and needs.

“The Inferno Series is a wood gas revolving brick oven, so it’s a combination of both for those who want to use wood,” says Scot Cosentino, president of New York Brick Oven Company. “They can heat the oven with gas and then fill it up with wood, have a beautiful show of fire and firewood, and get that smell and aroma wood-fired pizza ovens are known for with perfect baking.

While the Inferno Series is perfect for restaurants with a more nostalgic feel, the Fire Show Series attracts quick-serve and fast-casual operators who don’t want to burn wood. “It’s a gas-powered oven with a big, beautiful flame in the back,” says Cosentino. A workhorse of efficiency, the Fire Series can make up to 200 pies per hour and cook pizza in as little as 90 seconds. The rear fire show gas fire oven is the only rotating pizza oven of its kind in the industry.”

Traditional brick ovens have hot and cold spots that require constant attention and require pizzas to be moved around the oven quickly and often. This results in burned edges, half-cooked pizzas, and unnecessary food waste. New York Brick Ovens allow the pizza to bake evenly on a rotating deck, which means even cooking and consistent, quality product. Using digital controls, operators can set the oven to a desired temperature, lower and raise flames to different cooking parameters, and set the rotation function for different speeds and times. Once the settings are in place, the magic happens.

“Our revolving brick ovens remove the skill work and allow operators to hire people with less skill so they’re able to produce higher-quality, more consistent pizza with less labor,” Cosentino says. “Now, we can bring in any competent person, and within one hour, they can cook all the pizzas that the oven can produce.”

To ensure workers know exactly how to operate and care for the equipment, the company established Goodfellas Pizza School in Staten Island, New York. Attendees can choose from a four-day or six-day course where they learn pizza making from the best in the business.

“We designed the school to be one-on-one instruction,” says Scudera. “We can answer all their questions, and they can have our undivided attention while learning all styles of pizza, bread, and more in a real-time restaurant environment. That’s what really makes it special.”

To learn more about how NY Brick Ovens can help solve the labor shortage in your pizzeria, visit www.brickovensforsale.com.

To sign up for Goodfellas Pizza School, go to www.pizzaschoolnewyork.com.