Take someone like Franco Pepe, a prophet of the best artisanal philosophy but also a mind ready to accept how things evolve. He says: «The day I went to test Scugnizzo I didn’t expect such a result». Scugnizzo is an electric oven for pizzas created by Izzo forni, a small Neapolitan firm with 15 employees. Scugnizzo is now their top brand: its debut was in December 2013 after a gestation that lasted more or less one year, what with planning and production. If you think about it, it was a rather fast birth, «because it is the evolution of the ovens we’ve always produced, with the goal of getting closer and closer to the performance of a wood oven» says Giuseppe Carlo Russo Krauss, sole director of Izzo forni, the son in law of Salvatore Izzo, who founded the company in 1951. Today the goal seems to be reached, Krauss is enthusiastic. And beside Pepe, he also quotes other "certificates" that can demonstrate the excellence of Scugnizzo, which also pleased Davide Civitiello, 2013 world pizza-chef champion, his successor Valentino Libro, Guglielmo Vuolo, Salvatore Salvo...
The merit goes to its technical characteristics: a nice frontal side in ancient-looking, hand made copper («This is where we started from, we wanted some captivating aesthetics because there was a psychological resistance to trusting an electric oven»), the cooking base made with "biscotto di Sorrento" refractory brick, the ceiling of the cooking chamber made with ribbed refractory bricks... It can cook six pizzas at the same time, in around one minute, as traditional, because it keeps an average temperature between 450 and 470°C, often the weak point of electric ovens: «Neapolitan pizza regulations impose 440-450°C. This means we do better, we equal a wood oven in its best conditions».
With some further advantage: inside the Scugnizzo no place is occupied by embers, all the space is available. Heat is evenly distributed. Finally, there’s no soot, no smoke, no combustion remainders. Pepe: «Krauss has perhaps invented something important, a new frontier for pizza. Of course I am still attached to wood ovens, the act of rotating pizzas because the heat is not even, the cleaning of the soot...». The fact Scugnizzo is one step ahead, however, is clear: «I agree with Massimo Bottura: let’s treasure tradition while looking at innovation». Could one even hypothesize that wood ovens will be one day replaced? «In my opinion, this is a wild card. I still don’t know if the yield will confirm this in the long run». Still, if this were the case...
Giuseppe Carlo Russo Krauss, Izzo forni’s sole director, besideScugnizzo
is optimistic about it: «
Scugnizzo has been fully at work for over a year, after conducting around one hundred internal tests. I believe and hope that
Pepe will soon be able to solve his doubts». Yet what is its secret? «It has none. We have created this oven by changing over 30% of the components compared to its predecessors: tons of devices, special attention, precious materials. It’s not just a new product and who knows what else». All this comes at a price, «but it is in line with that of a wood oven: 8,750 euros, without the necessity of building and maintaining an exhaust pipe, without any soot reducer, without any wood management...». Are we facing a turning point?
