Food Safari

On our gastronomic journey,

the ability to capture and use fire was a quantum leap.

So too were the devices used to make the most of that heat.

We discovered the wonders of building a special oven heated by fire -

the stored warmth in the mud bricks

being used to cook a whole variety of foods, from bread to meat to pizza.

Welcome to Food Safari Fire

and the extraordinary versatility of the wood fired oven.

In this episode of Food Safari Fire, the magnificent perfection of pizza,

fragrant crusty bread made to an ancient recipe,

a show-stopping whole-baked fish, succulent Italian goat,

and a sensational Greek filo pie.

Wood fired ovens date at least back to ancient Egypt

and were conical structures built of stone and clay.

They became so popular,

the basic design spread throughout the Mediterranean

where they're seen in many ancient archaeological sites.

So it should be square onto the gauge.

Don't overwork it, just let it sit there and grab.

Today, for people all around the world,

the best part of their lives is not a swimming pool or tennis court,

but a wood fired oven.

Many have built their own and have great satisfaction

in creating something both useful and beautiful.

What is the attraction of a wood fired oven?

Endless connections.

It connects us to each other when we're building it.

Connects us to history when we're using it.

And ultimately, when you're cooking in it,

of course, everyone comes around.

One of the gurus of the wood fired oven is an enterprising chef

based in South Australia, Russell Jeavons.

He wrote an introductory book on the wood fired oven

and, with a mixture of science and intuition,

he's been building ovens for over two decades.

Each brick's a half-brick.

The bricks are there to store the heat

that you're creating with the fire.

OK, John. Check the position, give it a tap.

Every point that that tool holds a brick...

..will be equidistant from that centre point,

'so you'll get a perfect dome.

Isn't that amazing?

It's the key to building a dome.

And so the hard bit surely is at the top?

Yeah, but you'll have to work that out yourself.

Oh, really? Yeah.

You've gotta buy the book, right?

It'll help.

For many years, Russell Jeavons owned and cooked at a unique restaurant

in McLaren Vale, one of South Australia's prized wine districts.

It was famous for its fresh, simple food

cooked entirely in Russell's wood fired brick ovens.

Though the business is now owned by a former employee, Emma Baxter,

the capacity and versatility of his ovens remains

and people still line up to taste heaven.

Tell me how much you love this oven.

I've loved it from the very first day.

It changed cooking for me.

I didn't have to dream anything up anymore, it told me what to do.

You're constantly learning, constantly enjoying using it.

And you cook different things at different stages of heat

in this oven don't you?

Sure, sure. Yeah.

At its hottest point bread goes in, bread comes out.

Cakes, pies, followed by roasts.

In winter, I don't do it, but people used to put their children in.

To keep them warm? To keep them alive...

Really? ..when it was really cold, so...

Gee.

The Hansel and Gretel story is not a false story.

Ahh.

The wood used for fuel also imparts a flavour

and in Southern Italy, especially Calabria,

olive wood is prized for its intense heat

and the special taste it adds to everything cooked in the oven,

the tradition passed down through the generations.

This one is the one I'm looking for because see the...

Adelaide-based chef Salvatore Pepe couldn't believe his luck

when he found his home backed onto a reserve

where olive trees had been grown for over a hundred years,

gathering the fallen branches to fire the oven he made himself.

So, as a Calabrese boy living in Australia

you need to have one of these, do you?

You got... You must, yeah. Why?

The thing is with the flame of the things you're cooking in the oven

there is no comparison with anything.

Salvatore loves to source the best ingredients for his cooking,

finding fellow Calabrese farmers

who grow authentic Italian varieties of vegetables.

And capretto is baby goat?

Baby goat, yeah, with bone and everything.

And if people had never had capretto before,

how would you describe the flavour?

It's like, very similar to lamb, but much leaner.

It's got a little bit more wild flavour.

Mm. So, what flavours do you put with the capretto?

Lemon juice... Mm-hm.

..salt, and we need a bit of cinnamon

and lots of olive oil.

With the Calabrese cooking, you've gotta be very generous

with the olive oil. Mm.

Now you've gotta stir, making sure it's all rubbed in.

And that's it.

We're gonna braise first a little bit until it changes the colour

and then we're gonna add the rest of the ingredients.

Wow. That looks beautiful.

Yes, it's already... It's all golden and crusty already.

Now ready for the next step.

Couple of these beautiful onions from Tropea.

So, what makes these onions so special?

Well, they're just very, very sweet. You can eat this like an apple.

Now eggplant.

These are the Italian variety.

Now we're gonna stir and we get the eggplant on the bottom.

Oh good, so... So they can stew.

Yeah, all the juices from the meat.

All the juice and also the passata, tomato.

We just made this one.

Looks beautiful. Right.

A little bit of salt here again

because we put all the new ingredients in.

That's such a delicious recipe.

And I love that you can get

a lot of the Calabrese ingredients here now too.

Yes.

How long will this cook for now?

About another hour, then it's ready.

Oh, look at that. Oh!

Now to finish we've got a nice bunch of basil.

Mm-hm. Here. Just lots of leaves all over.

And now we're gonna stir.

Oh, and the eggplant's really cooked down perfectly.

Mmm. Shall we taste it? Please.

Some sauce, 'cause that's the best part.

That looks beautiful. The juice.

This looks so tender, I've just... Try, see how it is.

Wow. It melts doesn't it?

Delicious, very nice.

Oh, delicious. You can taste the cinnamon but it's not overpowering.

Masterpiece.

Beautiful, thank you. Grazie.

The Italians have been masters of wood fired cooking for centuries

and in Naples the pizza has evolved to something quite extraordinary -

the purest, simplest form of the food

that has travelled to all corners of the Earth.

In 2014, Melbourne pizzaiolo Johnny Di Francesco hit the world stage

winning the best pizza in the world

amongst 600 competitors from 35 countries

in Parma, Italy.

He has two restaurants in Melbourne and makes up to 7,000 pizzas a week.

His original restaurant in Brunswick, 400 Gradi,

is named after the optimum temperature to cook pizza,

at 400 degrees.

This is the engine of the kitchen.

And how hot is it in there now?

That's about 430.

And I love the way that you can do it without a temperature gauge.

Yeah.

We actually blow every temperature gauge that we have on the ovens.

'Cause you have it so hot? Yeah.

Johnny's four ovens all come from Naples,

each with a base of biscotto di Sorrento, a clay and volcanic mortar

prized for its heat retention since Roman times.

This and the insulated dome all help to keep the oven

intensely hot for quick cooking.

There's a saying in Naples, if your pizza's not cooked within 90 seconds

then it's not a Neapolitan pizza.

Really? Yep.

And you're now gonna share this world-beating recipe?

I am going to make the recipe exactly the same way

that I made it on the day.

We start off with water and salt first.

Now, the other thing that people make a mistake

is they would add the yeast now,

but what that does is actually destroy the yeast.

So you add about 20% of the flour first.

Double zero flour.

We can then just drop the yeast straight in, fresh yeast.

And a tiny bit.

That's a key factor that a lot of people make a mistake on,

they use a lot of yeast.

And if you allow the dough to rise for the right amount of time

the yeast will release its own natural sugar

and do exactly the same as adding sugar.

So, normally I would mix this for about 15 minutes

and to tell whether the dough is ready, I then press in the centre.

If it springs back up then your dough's ready to set aside.

Place it back into the bowl and just a damp cloth over the top.

And I'll let this rest now for two hours

and then I'd come back to it and make my dough balls.

So first one, and most people would have seen this,

your normal baker would normally use this to make a dough ball.

Now at home to be able to make some dough balls and really easy,

what you do is you grab it and you fold away.

Mm?

You then turn it up and do the same thing again.

Mm-hm.

And then you do it again.

Now we do... We'd repeat this around six times.