By Emily Beckett
Mark and Debbie Dye of Clanton are redefining the phrase “fresh from the oven,” one homemade pizza at a time.
For the past two years, the Dyes have cooked and served pizzas perhaps unlike any others in Chilton County.
The key to their exceptional pizzas cannot be found in their kitchen, though. It sits in the corner of their back patio.
The firebrick pizza oven the Dyes constructed has become a conversation piece, gathering place and the source of many meals the couple has enjoyed by themselves and with people they invite to their house.
Theirs is the only handmade pizza oven the Dyes know of in the county.
Mark said pizza ovens had sparked his interest years ago, and when he began more serious research on how to build an oven, he found a company called Forno Bravo in California that sold construction kits for pizza ovens.
“I didn’t know what he was talking about when he brought it up,” Debbie said. “I thought, ‘What are we going to do with this?’ But it’s been fun.”
Mark downloaded step-by-step instructions from Forno Bravo for building an outdoor oven.
After calling the city and obtaining permission to build the oven without a permit, Mark got to work.
“I was really interested in it, and I made my mind up to build one,” Mark said. “It was very, very challenging—probably one of the most challenging things I’ve built.”
The oven is made of firebrick, ceramic-blanketed insulation and insulating concrete, he said. It sits on a separate concrete block stand and weighs nearly a ton.
The interior diameter of the oven measures 42 inches.
Firebrick is a refractory brick used for lining the interior of an oven, fireplace or furnace, as it is capable of withstanding intense heat with minimal chances of cracking.
Mark said he spent a year’s worth of Saturdays (8–12 hours per Saturday for 52 weeks) building the oven from the ground up, Debbie by his side to lend a hand when she could.
“We’ve always done a lot of DIY projects,” Debbie said. “He’s a good handyman and perfectionist, too, so once he decided, he wasn’t going to quit.”
The couple got materials for their oven from Builders Supply in Montgomery, Capital Brick Company in Montgomery, Russell Do-It Center in Clanton, along with Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Debbie spearheaded the paint and tile selections once the structure was complete.
The oven is painted a terra cotta color and inlaid with iridescent blue tiles.
“People are amazed he actually did it himself without a professional,” Debbie said. “The hardest thing for me was seeing him work on it every Saturday. We just didn’t know the amount of time it would take to do it. He was so determined.”
Mark said the hardest part of building the oven was closing the dome at the top by cutting bricks with a saw to fit together without causing the oven to collapse.
“It was some painstaking, hard work,” Mark said. “Firebrick is a lot stronger than regular brick because of how they cure it. It even gave me respect for brick masons and the architecture of things and how they’re built and stay together.”
Although he didn’t keep track of how much the total project cost, Mark said ready-made pizza ovens range from $1,500–$7,000 each, depending on how large and ornate they are.
The Dyes’ oven can hold four to five pizzas at a time.
Wood chips are used inside the oven for the fire.
The couple normally lights the wood early in the morning and lets it burn throughout the day to achieve a high temperature for cooking pizzas for lunch or dinner.
The fire heats the bricks from top to bottom and eventually burns down to embers with little smoke or ashes.
They keep the embers pushed to the outside edges of the oven, leaving the middle open for the pizzas.
“Everybody thinks the fire goes in the bottom, and that’s where we keep the wood,” Debbie said. “The fire is all around the pizza. You push the embers around.”
The Dyes have used oak, hickory and pecan wood chips in their oven.
“We’ve cut down several of our own trees,” Debbie said. “It gives off a nice smell.”
Although the slow-burning fire requires hours to reach optimum heat, cooking the pizzas normally takes only a few minutes.
“Once it gets going, it’s kind of fast,” Debbie said.
The amount of wood needed to cook one or more pizzas depends on the type, dryness and length of time the fire burns.
Debbie said they use the oven during fall and winter more than the summer because of the heat.
“I think everybody enjoys it more at night in the fall,” Debbie said.
Cooking is not the only function the oven has.
It gives off enough warmth to allow the Dyes and their guests to sit outside on cooler days, and it provides natural light when the sun goes down.
“It puts off a nice ambiance,” Debbie said. “It’s a conversation piece. Guests enjoy it.”
No electricity is needed to operate the oven, and other things besides pizza can be cooked in it.
The couple said they are hoping to start cooking bread in the oven, and they plan to try making s’mores during their next get-together.
Beside the pizza oven, the couple added a matching outdoor kitchen and food bar with chairs to give them space to prepare and serve pizzas.
“He and I both love to cook, and we enjoy entertaining,” Debbie said. “We’ve always enjoyed doing things
together.”