Portable Pizza Preparator

In a few days I'll be leaving on a road trip to southern France. Cruising in the mountains, surfing some waves, helping with the harvest in the vineyards, cooking outdoors, sleeping in my van, living the good life.

There's one problem. I love pizza.

The problem is not the pizza. The problem is not me. The problem is the cooking. I never really managed to get it done with full satisfaction since there's a real big difference between a bonfire, a barbecue and a real oven.

Good pizzas are made in ton-heavy structures.

Not that portable, though.

So I decided to give it a try and to build a kind-of-oven from junk.

And I can't wait to test it.

Get you an old inox (double) sink and use a grinder to cut both sinks out.

Scrapyard, plumbers, safety goggles and isobetadine. Helpful keywords.

Put the one on the other - in that order - and rivet them together.

Clamps, pilot holes and some long rivets, you've got the picture.

Your oven deserves a nice entry.

Cutting again.

Trim the outside with a sander and make it stable. Note that this design leans 'backward'. I sanded the horizontal base in a 'two feet base' to gain more stability.

It's in the details, sometimes.

Air has to come in from the entry - of course - and also from the two inlets at the base.

Smoke goes out on the top - logic - where I left a large zone unriveted.

I'm hoping on a small Wall Of Smoke, actually...

I cut an old grill apart to fit into the oven and found a way to get it stable.

Even with a full-powered pizza on it, it won't fall and carbonise...

Okay, it's not a 'real' oven, I know.

It's not heavily insulated - in fact it's not insulated at all - and it's rather a reflector and a device that keeps the warmth more inside than in/on a classic barbecue.

Most of all, it's a prototype. And I can't wait to try it.

That first pizza will be a masterpiece. I can smell it, already.

I didn't make any pizzas yet, but I think it's a great device to have with you on the road. The fire stays compact & confine and this makes it safer to use. Energy stays a lot more inside compared to an open fired system and thus less wood is needed to get the job done.

To smoke fish on a road trip to Sweden & Norway, this is the device you need, definitely. Get a smal fire started, cover it with oak snippers and let the magic do its magic thing with your fish.

To be continued. Pizza calling.