Would you use a pizza oven when camping?

[BrassicaBabe]

If I may I'd like to pick your brains by way of market research
We have a small campsite with just 6 pitches. No elec etc but beautiful if I do say so myself.
I'm thinking of putting a pizza oven on site. Customer would need to light their own fire and cook their own pizza, but we would/could deliver the raw ingredients to make the pizzas.
What do you think? A good idea or just fluff?
TIA

I've never been on a site with this facility nor have I heard of it.

It sounds like a good idea but the only thing that would concern me and put me off would be cleanliness. Like all facilities on campsites, they can be fab but it takes for one or a few people to not leave things as they should be left and it makes it unpleasant. As this facility would be to do with food and cooking that would probably be the first thing I'd think of. I suppose it depends on where on the site it is, how it would be manned/checked etc.

In theory I think it sounds good - I'm not sure in practice how popular it would be. The one thing I like about camping is getting away from home comforts, tv's, phones, computers etc...makes us appreciate the uninterrupted time together, cooking things on a campfire or stove without the convenience and appreciate our home (and oven) more when we get back!

Sounds interesting. I use my Cobb to make pizza when we're camping although I don't always take it. Would definitely be interested in giving it a go, although cleanliness would be a concern. I'd also worry about one group of people taking ages so you weren't able to actually get on and use it yourself. I guess this isn't likely to be such a problem on a small site :)

Good points! Thank you!

We're a small site with only 6 pitches so moderately "low traffic".

Every group would get their own kit, chopping board, utensils etc, so the only area "uncleaned" as such would be the base of the oven. I think that gets so hot it would kill anything nasty....

Would you mind saying which campsite and where you're based? We're always looking for new places to go.

Hmmm sounds great in theory but making the fire the correct temperature and cooking the pizzas well is another story. A friend of mine has one and we tried to make pizzas while her husband was away. We didn't know the exact technique, didn't get the fire hot enough and it was a disaster...

Sounds like a good idea to me, as does your site! We would certainly use it.

When I was in Australia lots of the parks had a gas BBQ that you put your money in to heat it up and could then use it. You just cleaned it, if bothered, before you put your meat on. They were very popular.

Sound like 'fluff' to me. Could you do a pizza evening once a week where you cook/make the pizzas?

I think you'd be better off making cool fire areas for each pitch.

I'd rather have a fire pit for my pitch tbh, or a picnic bench. Lovely as a pizza oven sounds, it would be a faff to get it ready

I would much prefer it if you fired it up and sold us fresh pizza (maybe at weekend?) - would probably be a strong selling point for me!

You could possibly have a specific "pizza" night where you man the pizza oven and charge a fee for pizza dough and toppings then people could roll their own bases and add the toppings and cook it themselves.

I think maybe they do this at some of the Featherdown farm sites.

Sorry Tiggy just realised you said the same thing!

I build these as a sideline. We have one at our community garden. We use it each week in the late spring/summer/early autumn.

The only things I'd say are that it takes a certain skill to keep it at the right temp - they need to get it really hot pronto, then make the dough and roll out the pizzas, and then let it cool down a tad before cooking in it or it burns.

It doesn't take much of a faff, if there is dry firewood nearby. You need a hell of a lot of wood each burn though to get it to temp so hopefully you have a good wood nearby.

When we fire it up, people are dead keen so sit down and just watch the fire. I'd take bookings, and sell them pizza to make sure they don't use all the flippin wood.

Such valuable comments! Thank you.

We're "New Farm Holidays" and we're in Lincolnshire. Google will find us

Each pitch has its own fire pit.

I'm thinking it probably wouldn't work based in your comments. Even though I make a great pizzasauce!

We have a pizza oven which we built and use for our glampers.

It is not a simple thing at all and to be honest I wouldnt trust other people to do it. Our oven took about a month to build, it has 3 different layers and was totally built by hand. It takes about 3 hours using wood to get up to heat and then it cooks the pizzas in about a minute. It has really taken doing it a fair few times to get the knack of cooking the pizzas and keeping the temperature right. We have to have separately produced wood to put into the oven in order for it to be efficient - so if you produce your own firewood like us, then you would need to factor in this.

We make all the dough fresh, usually the night before. We use 00 tipo flour for this as it gives a good authentic taste and is wonderfully light. We will also do a supermarket run to buy a choice of toppings.

As it actually takes quite alot of preparation/work, we need to make sure there is enough demand. We only have 4 furnished glamping units (Glottenham Castle, East Sussex ) so we need at least 3 of them to be keen. Usually picking the night before they leave increases take up.

The guests could possibly do it, though you would probably still have to provide the dough. Again, it depends on whether the guests are more interested in the 'experience' or actually having something nice to eat! It may not work out cost effective by the time they have bought the extra wood and ingredients for you, and then of course the oven will be hot for a long time after only making a few. And what happens if 2 people want to use it at the same time?

I presume you are talking about a wood fired cobb oven?

Fabulous things and I know someone who has one in the garden, and it is fun to sit around making pizzas and those Tukish things (lahchumen??) and pide, but for camping I would find the whole dough preparation a bit much. We are happy just making the best of having a campfire to cook on.

Slices sold on a pizza evening - well, we could fall for that, but we are campers rather than glampers and while we like small sites with fires, we would probably fond laid on food a bit glampy. But would make us of the offer if it were there, rather than seek out the site specifically for it, iyswim.

yes, we find that they are very happy to have pizza provided, and of course you can charge more if it is like a restaurant! Its also nice for them to all gather to chat to each other as often they are each in their own units.

It is a fair bit of work though

I agree that I would never bother cooking pizza myself but would love a sit around and watch other people do it experience!

i'm currently looking for a site that has some sort of fire pits / BBQ facilities next to tent pitches but I can't find any. it would be great to have fuel provided and also marshmallows, sticks, chestnut shovel etc in a kit.

Winewolf, CampsiteUK / UKcampsite has a search filter for sites that allow fires. The 'camping unplugged' group of sites, led by Forgewood, hire out campfire grills, like the OP Does . Or tripod cooking systems are available for about £30, I think.

Thanks Blu :)