Orchard Ovens excited by dark kitchen pizza oven potential

Preston-based wood-fired pizza oven specialist, Orchard Ovens, is detecting an exciting new market for its authentic Italian Valoriani pizza ovens, as the dark kitchen concept begins to gain a real foothold in the UK market.

Although Orchard Ovens Commercial fitted out its first dark kitchens around eight years ago, in a London project for a leading takeaway delivery brand, the concept really only came to the fore through the most recent series of The Apprentice.  

Contestant Anisa Khan wanted Lord Sugar to leave her existing dark kitchen model and establish bricks and mortar eateries for her Bombay Pizza brand.  Lord Sugar’s view was that she needed to expand her dark kitchen network.

Basically, that means fulfilling orders solely through online means and generally then working with a third-partner delivery service to fulfil the orders.  It is a great way to test a new food concept or market, recipes or approaches.

This is where a Valoriani pizza oven comes in.  Someone wishing to launch a new pizza brand can invest in an outdoor or indoor wood-fired oven from Valoriani and, with a few pizza tools and boards, set up an enterprise fairly swiftly.

Very little equipment is required beyond the pizza oven and, if the chef is not confident in cooking with wood, they can use a gas-fired version of the oven.  

With some models, this has been proven, through stringent taste-tasting, to have no tangible difference in taste from the wood-fired pizzas.

With pizza, a dark kitchen is a great way to try out a variety of either gourmet toppings or exotic topics.  Some chefs exploring the dark kitchen option with Valoriani are focused on fusions of different cultures’ foods.  

They are using pizza bases, perhaps spiced or unusually flavoured, and then offering everything from Indian to Cajun and Asian to South American topping options. Others are exploring dark kitchens for niches such as gluten-free and vegan.

 This then provides great marketing potential for social media – all-important if the dark kitchen is to take off, as there is no natural footfall to drive menu sales.

The indoor Valoriani pizza oven option is particularly useful, as it provides the capacity for year-round sales and is not weather dependent.

It is also less intrusive for anyone with neighbours who do not want to have outdoor cooking taking place every evening.  Here, there needs to be the right flue system but, once fitted, the chef can be up and running for relatively little outlay.

 Whilst paying a third-party delivery company perhaps a 30 per cent commission might deter some chefs, the margins on pizza are large enough to cope, making it feasible whilst the brand builds and the concept is tested.  

With no other overheads to really factor in, other than the cost of wood or gas, it is perfectly possible to work in this way.

 Of course, the dark kitchen needs to be food-safe and licensed by the local council but once that is achieved, the business owner just needs to ensure they can create attractive food, have points of differentiation in their product and master the order management process efficiently.  

The savvy dark kitchen owner could also use this as a research process for a future mobile catering business.  By monitoring areas from which orders come, they could identify attractive sites at which to take a future mobile catering van, horsebox or trailer oven.  Again, Orchard Ovens can assist with all of these mobile pizza oven options.

Andrew Manciocchi, Orchard Ovens’ founder, said: “The dark kitchen concept is an exciting one for us, because we have the pizza oven equipment that can turn a vision into a reality very quickly and for not a huge amount of outlay.  

"Once they have the necessary permissions, a dark kitchen could be up and running swiftly, testing its culinary concepts and poking the local market to assess what works and what does not.  

“In this way, a dark kitchen can de-risk a future business, by taking away menu uncertainty, and can build a loyal fan base even before a more conventional business opens.

“If I were to define the personality of the dark kitchen enquirers we have had, I would say they are innovators, creatives and people not wanting to be confined by the usual ‘pizza box’.

"They are thinking differently but need to ensure their ideas are not too whacky and that their flavour combinations really will hit the mark.”

 Having a Valoriani oven, like the Fornino Cucina indoors, or the Fornino 60 or 75 outdoors, is key to this type of business because it is an oven with a huge amount of longevity.  

This is due to its build credentials and the artisanship that goes into its creation.  More expensive pizza oven models are available but the Fornino range from Valoriani is a great dark-kitchen starter oven.

Made from quality refractory clay, it will not let the dark kitchen down and will produce the high-quality product that is absolutely essential in this ‘testing’ phase of the business proposition.  

A dark kitchen trying to succeed with an oven that takes an age to heat up, does not retain the heat, and which has a red hot shell that makes working around it in a smaller space a nightmare, is not the answer.

Andrew Manciocchi said: "Dark kitchens appear to be a really exciting new market for us.

 “And it’s exciting to hear the vision of those wanting to set them up.  With all of our 20+ years’ experience in the UK pizza oven market, we can be great advisers too and are happy to share our knowledge, once the enquiry is converted into an order.”

For more details of the wood-fired and gas-fired pizza ovens that could suit your dark kitchen concept, call 07743 847647, or visit www.orchardovens.co.uk or https://www.orchardovenscommercial.co.uk