The boss

Joe Formisano – founder & CEO of DeliVita

My wife Faye bought me a large clay outdoor wood-fired oven. It was so large it had to be craned into my garden.

I fell in love with outdoor cooking, but, living in Yorkshire, the oven sadly could not withstand the outdoor life, with frost the final straw as the oven cracked and fell apart.

This sparked the birth of DeliVita and I spent years researching and building in my shed, testing over 40 wood-fired oven prototypes, searching for something lightweight, quick to temperature, retaining heat, fuel efficient, durable using marine stainless steel and a fibre-glass shell to protect the interior, able to be placed on any surface and capable of cooking much more than just pizza.

The business

DeliVita manufactures traditional clay ovens in Yorkshire. The only components that are not from Yorkshire is the refractory stone from Naples, Italy. We have created multiple fuel types to cater for everyone’s lifestyle and ovens to suit all budgets.

The influence

I moved to Italy when I was 12. I remember my aunt cooking a leg of lamb with potatoes in a big wood-fired oven and the flavour was immense.

My family, with its Italian heritage, has always had a passion for bringing people together and to share the love of cooking and this has been ingrained into me.

It takes me right back to being a child and having big family dinners, seeing the joy that food brought us all, and creating wonderful family memories that I will cherish forever.

The equipment

I love our DeliVita black iron dishes. They only take two minutes to reflect the heat of the stone and the meats taste incredible.

The meal

Smoked salmon. When you put the door on the oven, it extinguishes the flame, reaching temperatures of 600°C, allowing you to smoke a full salmon in four minutes.

The flavours are incredible; the exterior of the salmon is super smoky, leaving the centre beautifully juicy.

The next big thing

An appreciation from the worldwide cooking community of the versatility of the DeliVita. It doesn’t just cook the best Neapolitan pizza; you can barbecue, grill, smoke, tandoor, slow cook and bake bread in it.