Is Toyota shifting gears and moving into the pizza business? The auto manufacturer has teamed up with a Japanese appliance brand called Rinnai to design a hydrogen-powered stone deck oven that would deliver superior taste—and, presumably, no waft of gasoline.
That’s according to Autoblog.com, which reported on the collaboration on July 4.
Autoblog says Toyota and Rinnai worked together on the oven using technology derived from the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai sedan, which is only available in California. Toyota “knows how to make hydrogen-powered cars that don’t explode, and Rinnai knows how to make ovens and furnaces that don’t explode,” the site noted.
The oven looks a lot like a wood-fired pizza oven, complete with a dome, chimney and slot for inserting the pies to be baked, plus wheels for mobility.
Toyota and Rinnai have also developed a small hydrogen-fueled BBQ grill.
Toyota asserts that cooking with hydrogen improves the taste of food. “Hydrogen has a high combustion temperature,” Toyota has stated. “As it burns, it combines with oxygen to produce steam, making dishes crispy on the outside and succulent inside. For example, take things like mushrooms and vegetables. While these ingredients tend to dry out on a wood or charcoal barbecue, hydrogen cooks more quickly, leaving them bursting with moisture and delicious flavors.”
“Toyota’s employees have been testing the oven by making pizzas and croissants,” Autoblog reports. “The brand hasn’t published its dough recipe yet, however.”
It should be noted that the hydrogen-burning oven isn’t Toyota’s first foray into pizza-making. As PMQ reported in 2018, the company worked with Pizza Hut on a modified Toyota Tundra pick-up truck equipped with a conveyor oven, a fridge and little pizza-making robots. More recently, Lexus showcased a luxury vehicle that boasts its own electric pizza oven, debuting it at the Food & Wine Classic event in Aspen, Colorado, earlier this year.
What’s next? A Porsche for pizzaioli? The Toyota Pizzarolla? The Honda Pizzaccord?
