Classes   |  Tutorials   |  Resources   |   News 

Live Fire Cooking Camp

Explore the ancient yet contemporary form of cooking!
Cooking with fire is the oldest form of cookery. Whether in a wood-fired oven, fireplace, firepit or smoker or on a tuscan grill, campfire, hardwood charcoal fueled grill or Big Green Egg®, we’re drawn to the process of cooking with fire.

La Caja China: Everybody needs one of these!

Wood-fired In-home Tutorials

	Mary, an expert in wood-fired oven cooking, is offering in-home tutorials in using a wood-fired oven. Experience the pleasures of wood-fired oven cooking, including grilling, roasting, searing and baking in an authentic Italian wood-fired brick oven from Forno Bravo or on a Big Green Egg. Tutorials are available for Big Green Egg. Sample lessons include:  ~ Introduction to Wood-fired Cooking: Oven Management, cooking techniques and recipes for satisfying wood-fired meals.

Ovens, Grills, Fuel, Tools Resources

Wood-fired Ovens, Grills and Accessories:

Big Green Egg® oven: biggreenegg.com
Chicago Brick Oven: chicagobrickoven.com
Forno Bravo ovens: fornobravo.com
La Caja China lacajachina.com
NapaStyle Hearth Tuscan Grill : napastyle.com
Ovencrafters ovens: ovencrafters.net
SoJoe Fire Pits www.sojoe.com
SpitJack grills, firepits, rotisseries: spitjack.com
Stone Turtle Cooking & Baking School: www.stoneturtlebaking.com
Wood Stone ovens,tandors and char grills: woodstonehome.com

Ethical Fuel:

Lazzari Lump Mesquite Charcoal: lazzari.com
Peoples Wood Hardwood Charcoal: peopleswoods.com
Summit Views charcoal and wood products: summitviews.com

News and Articles

San Francisco Magazine: Cook Sharp
by Jan Newberry

Pizza al forno with Mary Karlin
The wood-burning oven has a transformative effect on a pizza, lending it a slightly smoky flavor, a char around the edge, and a crust that’s perfectly crisp. An afternoon spent learning to use one will have a similar effect on amateur pizza makers. For good measure, Mary Karlin also demonstrates how to make grilled pizza, a ridiculously easy—and brilliant—technique.

Instructor: A founding staff member of the Sonoma cooking school Ramekins, Karlin has been teaching there since 2001, covering such topics as cheesemaking, brunch, and, of course, pizza, calzones, and focaccia. Her eyes light up when she turns her attention to the wood-burning oven. She clearly has a soft spot for it, and her excitement is infectious.

Curriculum: In the course of the three-hour class, students work with four styles of dough—some made with high-gluten flour, others with olive oil and a bit of sugar, and each appropriate for a different style of pizza. Students prepare the doughs from scratch and then go on to use premade versions of the same—so no one has to wait for them to rise—to make grilled pizza as well as focaccia, a sweet and a savory calzone, and a cheese pizza in the wood-fired oven.

Philosophy: Keep it simple and use a light hand with the toppings. The soul of pizza is its crust—don’t hide it.

Write it down: “Focaccia likes olive oil. Don’t be afraid to use a lot.”

Worth the tuition: Grilling pizza in the insulated ceramic grill known as the Big Green Egg is an eye-opener. A fetish item among grill nerds, the Egg locks in heat like a sauna on overdrive. And for anyone who’s never had grilled pizza, the soft, blistered crust is a revelation.

Extra credit: The barrage of pizzas at the end of the class. The free wine is a nice perk too.

Tuition: $80. To register, go to www.ramekins.com.
—S.H.

Sally's Place: The Seductions of Live Fire Cooking
by Mary Karlin

Sonoma Valley Sun
Food Affairs column, by Mary Karlin
Outdoor cooking: Baby it’s (been too) cold outside!