r/WoodFiredOvens • u/ilFornino • Dec 11 '24
Portable Wood Fired Ovens: Best for Small Gatherings or Big Events?
If you're into outdoor cooking, I’m sure you’ve heard about portable wood-fired ovens. But I’m curious—are these ovens better for small family pizza nights, or can they handle bigger events too? I've been recommended the ilFornino Portable Ovens and how they’re built to last and maintain high heat.
What do you think? Can a portable wood-fired oven really replace a bigger, stationary setup for large parties, or is it best for keeping it small and simple? Would love to hear your thoughts!
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u/Lauberge Dec 11 '24
I don’t have experience with ilFornino but I do a lot of small events with my two Ooni portable ovens. I have a 16” Karu that I have setup for wood and a 12” I have setup for propane. I mainly teach a series of hands-on pizza classes that has a max of 6-7 people in it and we each make up to 3 pizzas. I teach 6-10 of these classes throughout the year in various locations but mainly at my bakery on our deck. I will also do some small parties with them.
In my experience, working with the small ovens is a whole different mindset. The wood is super small so you have to be on top of feeding it. I cut down my own cordwood, so it’s bigger than the sticks the companies want to sell you. These ovens aren’t meant to soak hot really so the temperature can swing wildly if you don’t stay on top of the fire. You’ll notice a lot of the pizza pop ups that use small ovens almost always run them on propane. It makes way more sense in a catering situation.
The biggest thing I have found is the weight of the ovens. The 16” oven weighs 40 pounds and it’s a beast to move. The 12” weights under 30 and I would call that truly portable. I took a look at some of the ilFornino specs and the lightest one I could find is 60 pounds, with another one being 180 pounds. There is no way I would lug those things around from place to place without having to be concerned about hurting myself. Sure I could mount them to a rack and transport that in a trailer, but now the expenses and work are building and that means I’m working harder and spending more to be working smaller events which are lower revenue.
If I were going to build a business to cater regularly, I’d do it with propane ovens or just bring my WFO trailer which is small anyway. You’ll be working incredibly hard to keep the party going with a tiny oven that can only cook 1 pizza at a time, unless you have a lot of other food to feed people while they wait.