How to start a fire for Pizza:
Start a fire in the centre towards the back of the oven. Keep the fire going. When the oven walls turn greyish to white, just before cooking your first pizza: move the coals that have formed and remaining wood to the right side of the oven and add a log. Clean the oven floor by brushing or blowing (through a long piece of pipe) the ash towards the fire and place the fire separator against the fire.
Be careful when you start cooking the first pizza: Check with your laser gun thermometer, the temperature of the oven floor should be around 300 - 350°C. 
Keep the fire alive while cooking the pizzas.
To cook a pizza it takes around 2 minutes, depending on the thickness of your dough. You have to turn them around a few times to avoid they burn on the side that is closest to the fire.
The oven door needs to stay half closed while cooking pizza to maintain a constant temperature.


How to start a fire for Bread:
Best would be to bake bread after baking pizzas.
Also you can prepare both dough’s at the same time, as the bread needs to raise longer then the pizza anyway.
That way the oven is already heated; all you need to do after you finish the pizzas is to stop adding wood, and spread the coals out over the oven floor.
When the coals finish glowing, move the coals close to the oven door, and put in the bread.
The ideal temperature for baking bread is 220 - 250‘C. If it is too hot take a part of the coals out.
Blow the ashes away (with a long piece of pipe) before you put the bread in.
The oven door needs to be closed while baking bread, but you have to check every now and then the cooking process.
It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to bake an average sized bread of 500gr.
Bread baked in a wood fired oven has a crisp and friable crust, and the inside is soft and delicate. It requires some discipline with the right temperature and you do need to carefully oversea the entire process. But then, the moment you take the bread from the oven with the shovel is incomparable: the delicate aroma fills the area and "speaks" of healthy, wholesome and appetising preparation of your daily bread.

How to start and manage the fire:
​Start a fire in the middle, towards the back of the oven.
After about 30 minutes move the coals that have formed and remaining wood to one side of the oven and add a log.
Keep the fire going until the oven reaches a temperature of around 200’C. Place your dish in the oven, but not too close to the fire, and cover it initially with some aluminium foil.
Keep the fire going but with just small flames while cooking.
Depending on the size of your roast and the sort of meat, it takes about 1 to 1.30 hour for a roast to cook. After around 30 minutes turn the dish around with the other side to the fire. After about another 30 minutes, take off the aluminium foil, and let it get a nice golden colour.
Check more often during this last phase and turn around again if needed. You could add some diced potatoes to the roast or chicken, particularly nice with roast of lamb, marinated in garlic and rosemary. Don’t forget to add some water (1 glass for a mid sized roast + potatoes)

The wood
Only ever use dry wood that is clean and is free of paint, glue, chemicals or treatments.
The perfect kindling wood to start the fire should be a soft wood such as pine or cedar because it burns quickly.
To maintain the fire, use hardwood that has a low moisture content such as Iron Bark or Red Gum.

The build
It is important to ensure you build the fire in your wood-fired oven correctly. This will ensure your oven reaches cooking temperature as quickly as possible and that you will also enjoy optimum cooking results.
Fire loves air. It feeds off it.
Stack your kindling in the middle of the oven.
You can Build the wood like a jenga tower, but with gaps in it or in a teepee shape

The Lightning
You can use a natural firelighter to get the fire going.
Light the firelighter, place it under the kindling and allow the flame to catch.
leave the door open the oven to allow the oxygen flow
Once a flame is established, gently move pieces of hard wood on top of the burning kindling so they can also catch fire.
Allow each piece to catch before adding the next piece.
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The push
Allow flames to burn for approximately 90 mins before cooking.
It’s been 90 minutes. Your kindling has all burnt out to embers. Your logs have collapsed in. You’re ready for the push back. Or side push. Wherever you want the fire to sit, now is the time to move it there. We recommend more to the side as this way you can see how your food is cooking. We use the shovel from our oven tool set to move the logs and coals.

The Temperature
Best is to check the temperature with an infrared thermometer. The desired temperature depends on what you wish to cook but 350°C – 400°C is usually ideal for pizza, or 230°C – 250°C for roasts or veggies.
The end is just the beginning

1. Remember that before you use your oven for the first time, you will need to cure it. The curing instructions are provided with your oven. 
Curing is basically drying out your oven to get rid of the moisture that is trapped inside the bricks, caused by the building method.
Also, to avoid excessive expansion of the dome and door arch, start the cooking fires always moderately and not too close to the front. Start it rather in the middle towards the back of the oven. 

2. If for some reason you don't use your oven for an extended period of time, we recommend to every now and then light just a little fire to keep the moisture out. Although the outside of our wood fired ovens are protected from the elements by the sealant, the refractory bricks and tiles on the inside of your oven is built tend to absorb humidity. 
So one or two little fires every month if you do not use it regularly, especially in humid areas and/or after heavy rainy periods.
But the best thing is of course: just use it. Even in colder seasons when you don’t have lunches or dinners outside, cook your roasts and stews in your oven and enjoy them for an indoor meal. It is a healthy addiction, cooking in your wood fired oven! 

3. We always recommend to start your cooking fire moderately each time, so that eventually present humidity can dry and the refractory bricks and mortar can warm up slowly. This can help prevent excessive cracking.

4. The best wood for cooking are high density woods such as Iron Bark or Black or Grey Box as they burn nice and slow and thus retain heat for longer. But you can use other types of hard wood, as long as it has not previously been painted or treated. And always make sure the wood you use is very dry.
Do not use pressure treated lumber, chipped wood products, sappy wood such as pine, laminated wood or any material other than dry hard wood (do not burn the crate the oven comes in).
Never use liquid fuel to start or maintain a fire!
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5. Keeping your oven clean is simple: after baking bread, the only residue you have is a bit of burnt flour, which is easily swept out after cooling down.
Cooking in oven dishes will not make your oven dirty, and if any incrustation of grease splashes occurs, that will burn away when lighting your next fire.
Only after baking pizza in your oven, a little more “cleaning” is required. As mozzarella or other cheese melts and easily spills of the pizza on the oven floor.
When you finish baking pizzas simply spread the formed coals over the cooking area, so that the spilt and crusted mozzarella and topping will burn and turn to ashes which can be removed after cooling.