About us- our design philosophy
Wood-fired ovens started as an idea in 2008 after Amrit Row, a former Fine artist, garden designer and amateur baker had been asked by a couple of clients to build a wood-fired oven in the gardens he had designed for them.
Later, he felt that there was room in the market to develop a creative design-led business and bring the traditional wood-fired bread and pizza oven up to date with new ideas, new materials and a more experimental approach.
After many of the early years experimenting with different brands and low sales in a very undeveloped market, Amrit finally settled on the Four Grand-Mere brand to take forward and work with. After a visit to their factory in the Alsace in North eastern France, he knew straightaway that they were the right company to support him in getting a high quality range to the UK marketplace.
Not only were the ovens incredibly well made but the range was enormous, with an oven for almost any situation, domestic, commercial, pizzeria or bakery. And so it has slowly grown over the last 12 years to become the first port of call for enquiries from customers, both private and commercial, seeking both quality and high-end design.
With over 20 years in Landscape construction, Amrit is a highly skilled builder and uses a number of specialist skilled craftsmen and manufacturers to make all installations of the highest quality, be it masonry, carpentry or metal work. Amrit now employs his son Louis with experience in Product Design and Photography to help out on projects and is learning the techniques to eventually take over the running of the business.
Do not expect us to be the cheapest option as we strive to deliver the best quality work and that does come at a cost. We often have to travel and stay over for projects over one or two hours away from our base near Stroud, Gloucestershire that adds to our base costs and getting the right people or reliable suppliers on board has been crucial to our success.
It often helps if you have a local builder who you trust to do some of the ground work as this relieves some of the pressure on us as some aspects of the build may take only a couple of hours and saves us travelling long distances. Having said that, we like to offer a turnkey service if possible so we can guarantee our work has been done to highest level of quality.
Our key design philosophy is simplicity. Style flows from good design so we strive not to overcomplicate our builds with too many materials or fancy brickwork. Simplicity, elegance and poise in design and understated skill in execution.
About us and our skills
Our skills are informed by a culture of creativity, sustainability and conservation, with a philosophy of reducing waste and using low impact, low carbon construction wherever possible- using Lime mortars and renders instead of cement, FSC timber with verifiable chain of custody, reclaimed or locally sourced materials and if we use high embodied energy materials like stainless steel, that they are designed to last with low maintenance and end of use recycling.
The brick and chamotte (heat stable concrete) ovens we use are manufactured in the Vosges region of NE France and are the best we have come across in terms of build quality, breadth of range and speed of delivery. Amrit has a close working relationship with Four Grand-Mere and is proud to distribute their ovens to the UK market.
In addition to our range of wood-fired and gas pizza ovens, Amrit has designed and built many beautiful outdoor kitchens for private clients and developers who understand his ability to get projects finished to a high standard within the design and time constraints common with large new builds.
We have ventured into a number of very successful collaborations with commercial outlets both large and small, such as our beautiful hand-made Neapolitan style brick oven at Eco a foodie landmark on Clapham High street, London. By contrast, we have installed a small wood-fired oven in a local cafe, The Old Fire Station in Warminster, who have gone from strength to strength over the last four years and make excellent pizza.
About us- a note on appliances we use
We understand there is a big market for cheap appliances and fully realise that people are often cash strapped or have limited budgets and are often swayed by discounting and deals. All we say is from our point of view, we don’t want to keep having to come back to repair goods and appliances especially if on the other side of the country to us so we don’t generally use those cheaper goods.
Cheapness always comes at a cost as we have found after a job is finished. Doors leak, some appliances like side burners are not sealed against water ingress making cupboard spaces underneath unusable. If you read the small print, you often find that there are disclaimers that say ‘guaranteed if used under cover” whilst sold as products for outdoor kitchens that are in reality 90% of the time outside without a cover.
About us- our guarantees
We will talk all this through with you before you commit to any design and build contract and of course you still have manufacturers guarantees as a back up. We offer a 10 year materials guarantee on our Domestic wood-fired ovens, that’s how confident we are that you have bought one the best ovens available anywhere.
Please go to the contact page for more details.