Gas-fired pizza ovens have become very popular in large volume onsite locations, like this servery at DCH Medical Center in Tuscaloosa.

Display kitchens are a trend that is here to stay. There is no doubt the open kitchen “wow factor” can be impressive and is now a very popular feature in many of the hottest restaurants and onsite station concepts.

Open kitchens are popular for three main reasons. First, they provide a certain level of action or entertainment in a restaurant. People tend to be more comfortable where there is activity and the display kitchen offers the sizzle of the steak and flame of the grill. Second, guests like to know where their food is coming from — and that doesn't mean from a can and microwave! Having the kitchen open tells the customer the restaurant has nothing to hide.

Finally, food away from home is about experience and an open kitchen offers both a design experience and a culinary experience.

Many equipment items can be easily adapted to the open kitchen. Some look better than others or provide a cooking process that is especially pleasing to watch. Among the best are induction cooktops, pizza ovens, rotisseries, and ranges.

We say wood burning “style” because while it may look like they burn wood, almost all of these ovens in onsite applications are gas fired. Real wood ovens have increased restrictions from fire and exhaust emissions regulations.

Most wood-burning “style” pizza ovens have a massive stone hearth and fire brick sides. They can weigh as much as 3000 pounds. The bulk of stone and brick are key to the oven's most important feature, its ability to store heat. Recovery time when doing high volume is generally not an issue. The ovens are also surprisingly energy efficient.

Most ovens are round and range in size from about 9 to 30 square feet of cooking surface. Ovens at the smaller end are most common, but they are still large compared to most other cooking equipment. The overall diameter of an oven with a nine square foot cooking surface is about five feet when all the fire brick and insulation is added. This small unit can produce quite a volume of pizzas, however. Pizzas can be baked in as little as three minutes, but may take five to seven minutes depending on toppings. A nine square foot oven can hold 8-10 pizzas at a time, so with experience it is possible to bake up to around 100 pizzas in an hour.