Florentinos Tenby- a neat gas pizza oven
Florentinos Tenby
We first met Claudio Cernat at his Italian restaurant ‘Florentinos’ in Carmarthen West Wales early in 2019. He was planning a new larger oven to replace the small wood-fired oven that had outlived its usefulness but mentioned he was negotiating a new large restaurant on the harbour-side in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.
As time went on it was clear that the new Florentinos Tenby restaurant was going to be a priority so in June we started work on installing a new small Four Grand-Mere F950 gas pizza oven that fitted into the same footprint as the existing electric deck oven in the main kitchen situated in the basement.
Working over several nights, we worked to get the oven installed on a tight schedule alongside the plumbers and electricians of the fit out company working in the main restaurant and down in the basement with us.
Because of time restraint and easy availability, we decided to retrofit a Four Grand-Mere chamotte F950C+ wood-fired oven with an Italian Avanzini gas burner rated to work with the diameter of oven we had chosen. Four Grand-Mere do their own oven with gas burner but would have taken several weeks to deliver.
Why gas?
Gas is never our first choice as it is a fossil fuel and not a renewable resource like wood but in certain circumstances, even with the extra cost of the gas burner, it is a better choice depending on the situation. With the kitchen in the basement, it meant that we could not install a dedicated stand alone flue for the oven as there was no way of getting it outside.
Gas is very controllable with the programmable temperature display so all the chef has to do is set a working temperature of say 350C and wait for the oven to heat up. The thermocouple set in the dome reads the temperature and when ready throttles down the burner to keep the temperature steady. It allows the chef to get on with other things in a busy kitchen rather than stand over the oven poking wood around and making sure there’s enough wood stored to keep the flame going.
Being a gas oven, we were able to exit the flue directly into the extraction system and configured so the burner would only run when the extraction system was running. This is an important safety feature to make sure gases are expelled when there is adequate depression in the flue system.
We finished the oven off with a beautiful ‘Teal’ colour tile that matched the theme upstairs in the restaurant. Nobody gets to see the oven except the chefs but the colour really sets off the reds of the arch and hearth tiles and adds a nice finishing touch with an easy clean surface.
The new Florentinos Tenby restaurant is now a thriving and much loved part of the Tenby foodie scene with an interior to die for jointly designed by Claudio and his talented musician wife Catrin. With its sea views and prominent position on the harbour its an amazing place and well worth a visit if you’re in the area.
Florentinos Tenby- from the website
“The restaurant is set on two floors of this amazing grade II listed building. All our food is freshly prepared on the premises and uses fantastic quality locally sourced meat, vegetables and as you would expect of where we are. locally sourced fish, shellfish and seafood.
Our delicious menu includes popular Italian dishes that are already well established at our Carmarthen restaurant. Check out our menu page for a full listing of what we have to offer.
Remember also that until you’ve tasted our freshly made pizza, you haven’t experienced a truly Italian pizza.”
Florentinos Tenby We first met Claudio Cernat at his Italian restaurant ‘Florentinos’ in Carmarthen West Wales early in 2019. He was planning a new larger oven to replace the small wood-fired oven that had outlived its usefulness but mentioned he was negotiating a new large restaurant on the harbour-side in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. As time went […]