About Us

Where did the PIZZA CANOPY come from?

My name is Mike O’Brien.  I was in the ceramic business for 30 years.  In those 30 years, I learned a lot about heat containment.  When our youngest son was getting married, we got bids for the rehearsal dinner from caterers around San Luis Obispo, our old home town.  We got a bid from a local mobile pizza company for $26 per person.  I happened to be in my office with one of my sons-in-law Rob.  We talked about that bid, and thought Mobile Pizza might be a viable business.  Over the next few weeks Rob and I talked further about the possibilities.  I had been firing ceramic kilns to 2300 degrees everyday for the last 30 years, building a pizza oven that will get to 800 degF would be a piece of cake.   At the time, Rob was selling software.  He expressed an interest in selling pizza at the local farmers markets.  We agreed that I would build him an oven, and he would sell pizza.  After about 6 months, he was making more money selling pizza than he was software, so he quit his “real job” and became a full time caterer.  He combined forces with his wife Emily who had a flourishing wedding flower business and now, together they do weddings all around San Diego County.

That first oven consisted of a large BBQ from Sam’s Club.  I took the top off and threw it away.  I made a mold, and cast 3 half barrel shaped domes that sit on top of the BBQ.  He can make 3 pizzas at a time.  If he is really busy, he can turn the heat up and make them at 90 seconds each.  That barrel shaped dome became the PIZZA CANOPY.  The originals were made of a high temperature “castable refractory”.  Its very hard to work with, and very expensive.  If I wanted to make the Pizza Canopy viable as a stand alone product, I needed to learn to make that castable refractory material myself.  That was 2 years ago and after 8 loose leaf binders full of test formulas and results I have a synthetic mineral I call OBDURITE.  The word OBDURITE comes from the Latin word “OBDURO” which means:  unbending, hard, durable, persistent.  It has a melting point somewhere around 2500 degF.

Where did the PIZZA STONE come from.

Since I now have OBDURITE, my Pizza Stones are made of OBDURITE also.  The surface is rough polished and fairly smooth.  It is washable, although it is not recommended to completely immerse it in water for any length of time.  If you do wash it, wipe dry immediatly.  The everyday pizza stone is made of Cordierite.  Cordierite is very porous, 20/40% air.  The surface is rough and not washable.  When you put water on it, that 20/40% air will be replaced by 20/40% water.   When you heat any stone that has water in it you risk breaking it. OBDURITE is more dense than Cordierite and therefore absorbes less water when submerged, but its still unwise to heat a wet stone.  If you do wash it, let it sit in a dry place for a couple of days and it will bee ok.  If you need to use it right away, put it in your oven, at 200 degrees, with door slightly open, or on your BBQ on low, for an hour and you will be good to go.

To decrease the heat up time, my OBDURITE Stones have grooves in the bottom. Heat transfer into the stone is a function of surface area. The grooves add about 30% more surface area to the bottom of the stone.  Because of the high density, OBDURITE holds more heat energy, and releases it over a longer period of time for a more even baking.

 

PizzaCanopy.com was founded in 2013, and has been providing quality and innovative outdoor pizza products to the public since. Located in Vista, California.