We are Alfa
We've cracked the code
We all know what we want from a pizza. Crispy crust. Chewy, airy insides. Perfectly melted cheese. Easy to wish for, but much harder to achieve.
To make a perfect pizza, the floor of the oven needs to impart heat quickly enough for the crust to be crisp before the dough is overcooked, but not so quickly that it burns. The air circulating the oven must be fiercely hot, allowing the toppings to cook in the short time available.
The challenge is to solve this thermal puzzle in a format that is practical for the home. Across four decades of obsessive development, that’s what Alfa’s Italian designers and engineers have done. After perfecting the brick and commercial oven, we’ve cracked the code for making perfect pizza at home.
Created by family
Founded in 1977 by two friends, Marcello Ortuso and Rocco Lauro, Alfa remains a true family business. Marcello and Rocco are still the soul of the company, but they’ve now been joined by the next generation of the Ortuso and Lauro families.
Our ovens are 100% made in Italy, produced by artisans who take great pride in their work. Our base is in the ancient town of Anagni, off the road that joins Rome to Naples – the historic heartland of pizza. It’s from here that for more than 40 years we’ve been perfecting the performance of our ovens.
Driven by innovation
At Alfa, we love traditional Italian pizza, but we’ve been driving advances in technology, engineering and material science to help us create it.
The performance of our ovens is driven by Alfa’s patented innovations. The three-layer ceramic fibre dome insulation allows the oven to gain heat quickly and retain it efficiently while keeping fuel consumption low. The steel structure is specially designed to withstand thermal and mechanical stress caused by the high temperature of the oven.
Our oven floors are constructed from our own patented refractory brick, made from a special ceramic containing high levels of alumina (aluminium oxide) – a substance with high insulating capability, low electrical conductivity and strong resistance to acids. A typical brick might start to break apart at 650°C, but our refractory brick will handle heat up to 1,000°C.
Our patented flue system has been painstakingly engineered to circulate hot air back down to the cooking surface rather than allowing it to immediately escape through the chimney.
By combining high-grade steel with our patented refractory materials, we’ve been able to make the oven structure and dome both highly durable and remarkably lightweight. The materials we use are also easy to clean and highly rust resistant.
The performance of our ovens is driven by Alfa’s patented innovations. The three-layer ceramic fibre dome insulation allows the oven to gain heat quickly and retain it efficiently while keeping fuel consumption low. The steel structure is specially designed to withstand thermal and mechanical stress caused by the high temperature of the oven.
Our oven floors are constructed from our own patented refractory brick, made from a special ceramic containing high levels of alumina (aluminium oxide) – a substance with high insulating capability, low electrical conductivity and strong resistance to acids. A typical brick might start to break apart at 650°C, but our refractory brick will handle heat up to 1,000°C.
Our patented flue system has been painstakingly engineered to circulate hot air back down to the cooking surface rather than allowing it to immediately escape through the chimney.
By combining high-grade steel with our patented refractory materials, we’ve been able to make the oven structure and dome both highly durable and remarkably lightweight. The materials we use are also easy to clean and highly rust resistant.
Alight entertainment
Cooking food outdoors over fire then sharing that food with friends and family is among life’s most enduring pleasures. We don’t build pizza ovens just to make pizza; we build them to be a social hub, a reason to gather people around you to eat, drink and talk.
Heat up your evenings
Alfa commercial ovens
As well as building ovens for the home, we also build larger models for commercial kitchens, including some of Italy’s best pizza restaurants. Please contact us for a brochure and bespoke consultation.
Get in touch