Copper Top Ovens

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Copper Top Ovens

We started our new adventure in the summer of 2009 and look forward to sharing our savory signature pizzas with you.

Throughout history, the wood-fired oven was a gathering place. Bakers would fire “village ovens” in the morning and later in the day families, neighbors, and guests would arrive to feast and celebrate. The oven was where meals were prepared bread broken, and community defined.

Returning to a timeless tradition perfected over 2,500 years ago. Today, we cook for family and friends in our mobile wood-fired oven that produces exceptional results. Simultaneously using three different time tested types of heat sources–conductive heat from the hearth, radiant heat from the walls, and convection air heat from the flames circulating in the dome of our oven.

The optimal cooking temperature in our oven is between 800-1,000 degrees. We use the best quality flour, hand-tossed dough, and fresh seasonal farmers’ market ingredients to make and deliver our pizza pies. Our oven has space for five pizza pies at a time, with each pie taking about two minutes to bake. Pizza pies exit the oven with a seared crackling top crust and thin moist bottom crust.

 

What we enjoy

What We Enjoy & How to Contact Us

Making and delivering our signature pizza pies to our family, friends, and guests. Assisting you to build and install a wood-fired oven. 

Kathy and Tom have worked in government and non-profit agencies for many years with youth and their families, assisting them overcome many challenges and hardships. They acquired a vast acumen of business management skills and have enjoyed many successes from their commitment to local community and social initiatives.  Tom had the good fortune to gain considerable experience leading a team in the development of a culinary arts training program and subsequently the start-up of a catering venture to train high-risk youth in the food service industry.  Among Kathy’s many responsibilities as a Program Director at a residential adolescent mental health program, she supervised a food and garden program, that contributed fresh produce to meals and educated youth about California’s seasonal food cycles.

Tom took a break after 13 years as the administrator of a large non-profit youth substance abuse recovery program and devoted his full attention to opening Copper Top Oven, LLC.  In 2014, Kathy transitioned to supporting Copper Top Ovens full time and Tom returned to working with youth and their families.  They very much enjoy serving artisan pizzas at farmers markets’, events, and celebrations throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area and look forward to seeing you at a market or supporting you coordinate a memorable event with your colleagues, friends, or family.

Our Oven

Our Wood-fired Oven

We’ve returned to a timeless tradition of enjoying food with family, family, and your guests.

We built our first wood-fired mobile oven in 2008 using modern, lightweight, and heat retaining materials developed by Wildwood Ovens in Southern California.  In building that first oven we also installed a special Heat Stopper Board under the hearth made of innovative materials with insulating properties similar to the heat reflective panels used on space shuttles.  In consultation with Mork Co., in Berkeley, CA, we fabricated a custom metal stand, with a stunning “Copper Top,” so we could safely transport our mobile oven throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, giving us the unique capability to cook with a wood-fired oven in locations few people dreamed possible.

Using old world and time-tested oven design dimensions, we are able to quickly heat up the oven and efficiently cook our artisan food offerings within temperature ranges of 800° to 1,000° while substantially reducing the heat dissipation from the oven hearth, leaving a low carbon footprint.  While building our first oven we simultaneously experimented and perfected our pizza dough, dialing in the precise amounts of water, yeast, flour, and salt to produce our signature pizza thin crust.

In June 2009, we attended our first farmers market at Jack London Square in Oakland and expanded that same summer into attending other farmers markets in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties.  During the winter months of 2015, after six years on the road, our first oven went into retirement in a friend’s outdoor kitchen.  That same year, we expanded our artisan wood-fired mobile oven business and transitioned into operating two Tuscany handcrafted commercial Refrattari Valoriani ovens that were imported from Italy by Mugnaini Imports, Inc., in Healdsburg, CA.

The ovens were then mounted on double axle trailers built to support the rigors of being on the road to destinations as functional pieces of art in which we continue to enjoy baking up to five fresh and flavorful signature pizzas at a time with each“pie” taking just two minutes to cook!

Special Events

We offer adding a unique mobile wood-fired cooking experience to your next event. Our goals are to consult with you to design a menu and service style that suits your occasion, is within your budget, and ensures you and your guest will recall time together as enjoyable and memorable. 

We deliver more than Pizza! We enjoy arriving at special events with one of our unique wood-fired ovens; 4,500 pounds of functional art and supporting you create a great and memorable ambiance for any kind of event.  With the aroma of seasoned almond wood in the air, we strive to craft with you a selection of fresh artisan pizza for all types of palates.

Your menu selection is important to us!  We offer a wide selection of options that might include traditional marinara or pesto based sauces with a blend of fresh mozzarella and provolone cheeses, seasonal vegetables, and/or an assortment of meat toppings.  We can also develop with you a more bravura menu with a more varied selection of base sauces, gourmet cheeses, and toppings.  We can also provide gluten-free crusts and/or non-dairy cheese for guests with dietary restrictions.

For a consultation, please email Tom at tomgerstel@att.net or call him at (510) 708 5040.