Upper Hutt is in for a pizza treat!
Hand built: Art of Pizza, Owner - Chris Chevalier (Left), and ​Scot Cosentino building the specialty oven.
Upper Hutt now has its own hand-built wood-fired pizza oven built by a top New York pizza maker and oven builder.
Chris Chevalier will open Art of Pizza on Main St this month and has hand-built the oven with New York's award-winning pizza maker Scot Cosentino.
Mr Cosentino owns Goodfella Pizza in Staten Island, won World's Best Pizza in 2007, 2009 and 2012, and builds world- renowned wood-fired ovens by hand.
Mr Chevalier travelled to New York to attend one of Mr Cosentino's pizza master classes and was able to interest the master into travelling to New Zealand to help build the oven.
"We made a really good connection and I have seen his vision and he reminded me of myself when I started out 20 years ago," Mr Cosentino said.
"It is a lost art, knowing how to build these ovens. There are very few people in the world who know how to do it.
"It is the art of pizza, you have to have the right oven."
The oven took more than three weeks to complete and is based on exact measurements.
"There's specific dome heights, you have to use true fire bricks, it is front vented and even the front door has to be a specific height," Mr Chevalier said.
"It's an engineering feat."
The oven was built from materials including fire bricks, lava rock from Mt Ruapehu, river rock from the Hutt River, Pink Batts, clay, chicken wire and concrete blocks.
To cook the pizza, a fire is built inside the oven and the heat is absorbed by the heavy oven walls. When the dome chamber is white- hot, the fire is allowed to die down or kept burning only very gently. The pizza is then put in the oven and cooks in about two minutes.
Mr Cosentino helped Mr Chevalier create a range of artisan pizzas based on signature dishes from Mr Chevalier's career.
This range is based on main meals served in a pizza style. It will include a gourmet pizza with a wood-fired steak, salmon or prawns served on top.
"It will be like nothing anyone has seen. You can't even imagine what it will look like."
The restaurant will also have a gourmet and classic pizza range.There will also be yummy dessert pizzas with ingredients like Nutella, apple and cinnamon.
Mr Chevalier has been a chef for more than 25 years and has worked in top restaurants in Wellington including Martin Bosley's restaurant on Oriental Parade.
He decided to open Upper Hutt's first wood-fired pizzeria to create a family space in the centre of town. "I want it to be Upper Hutt's place, so when family and friends come from out of town they come here."
UPPER HUTT LEADER 9/5/12
Chris Chevalier will open Art of Pizza on Main St this month and has hand-built the oven with New York's award-winning pizza maker Scot Cosentino.
Mr Cosentino owns Goodfella Pizza in Staten Island, won World's Best Pizza in 2007, 2009 and 2012, and builds world- renowned wood-fired ovens by hand.
Mr Chevalier travelled to New York to attend one of Mr Cosentino's pizza master classes and was able to interest the master into travelling to New Zealand to help build the oven.
"We made a really good connection and I have seen his vision and he reminded me of myself when I started out 20 years ago," Mr Cosentino said.
"It is a lost art, knowing how to build these ovens. There are very few people in the world who know how to do it.
"It is the art of pizza, you have to have the right oven."
The oven took more than three weeks to complete and is based on exact measurements.
"There's specific dome heights, you have to use true fire bricks, it is front vented and even the front door has to be a specific height," Mr Chevalier said.
"It's an engineering feat."
The oven was built from materials including fire bricks, lava rock from Mt Ruapehu, river rock from the Hutt River, Pink Batts, clay, chicken wire and concrete blocks.
To cook the pizza, a fire is built inside the oven and the heat is absorbed by the heavy oven walls. When the dome chamber is white- hot, the fire is allowed to die down or kept burning only very gently. The pizza is then put in the oven and cooks in about two minutes.
Mr Cosentino helped Mr Chevalier create a range of artisan pizzas based on signature dishes from Mr Chevalier's career.
This range is based on main meals served in a pizza style. It will include a gourmet pizza with a wood-fired steak, salmon or prawns served on top.
"It will be like nothing anyone has seen. You can't even imagine what it will look like."
The restaurant will also have a gourmet and classic pizza range.There will also be yummy dessert pizzas with ingredients like Nutella, apple and cinnamon.
Mr Chevalier has been a chef for more than 25 years and has worked in top restaurants in Wellington including Martin Bosley's restaurant on Oriental Parade.
He decided to open Upper Hutt's first wood-fired pizzeria to create a family space in the centre of town. "I want it to be Upper Hutt's place, so when family and friends come from out of town they come here."
UPPER HUTT LEADER 9/5/12
