Smoke, cheese and wood fired ovens

It is time to step up from food dished out from electric ovens and explore the smoky, crisp and fresh texture of cuisines prepared in traditional wood fired ovens, say chefs who are designing menus straight out of the classic furnace.
The concept of the wood fired oven originates from the medieval ages and uses wood as a fuel in the oven for cooking and baking . The oven is heated by burning wood, and the food is cooked while the fire is aglow, or later in the heated oven.
This wood, says chefs lends smokiness to the dish, along with the flavour of the wood used in the oven.

The restaurants which are offering wood fired food are however mostly sticking to pizzas, experimenting with the type of base, cheese and toppings instead.
"Well for pizzas the taste depends on the base of pizza and if your recipe for the base is good you get the taste. And the kind of cheese you are using also is a factor for good taste in pizza. Texture should be rightly baked and should be crispy with little smoky flavour," says Chef Ceicil Raj from the Q'BA restaurant here.
Pawan Soni, from the Indian Food Freak, a non profit that runs a restaurant review website, points out the nature of ingredients used in pizzas make it easier for the smoky flavour to seep in the food.

"Most dairy products including cheese in pizzas absorbs the wood flavour well. Similarly meats also absorbs the aroma and it can lend a new dimension to the routine dishes," he says.
Apart from restaurants which house a wood fired oven as a permanent feature, others are catching on the trend as well by hosting smaller festivals with the wood fired oven.
Q'BA, a primarily casual dining outlet installed a makeshift wood fired oven within the restaurant premises, for diners to explore at their ongoing wood fired food festival on till the end of September.