All Fired Up

Chef Waldy Malouf is fond of saying that he gets his culinary inspiration from anywhere open-fire cooking was used, whether it be the Mediterranean region, South America, California - or even his own back yard.  So in 1999, when Malouf, the former chef of The Rainbow Room and La Cremaillere, opened Beacon, he turned to Wood Stone for his wood-fired oven.  Malouf installed  a 6-foot wood-burning oven in the Manhattan restaurant, and a year later when he opened a second location in Stamford, Ct., he not only installed another 6-foot Wood Stone oven in the roomier kitchen, but added a 4-foot oven as well.

"I liked Wood Stone's fixture because it took up less space than some of the others, which is important in New York," recalls Malouf.  "I also like that it's built in one piece, so it lasts a very long time, and it'll maintain heat very well because of the unified structure."  Malouf also appreciated that the oven is gas assist.  "That allows you to get it up and running quicker and faster," he explains.  "And then when it's not needed, because you're using wood, you can turn it off."  It also helped that Wood Stone's products meet the stringent New York City fire, health department and building code rules and regulations.  "You have to have separate exhaust for any solid fuel-burning equipment, and the Wood Stone people were really helpful in helping us design and arrange that," says Malouf.

Malouf claims he gets a lot of use out of his Wood Stone oven.  "I wasn't looking to use the oven as just for a single purpose, like for a pizza oven," says Malouf.  "After spending a bit of time in the Mediterranean and South America, where wood-burning ovens are used for everything from bread baking to roasting meats and fish, that's what I wanted to work into the cuisine here at Beacon."  He accomplished his goal - roughly 50 percent of Beacon's menu items are made in the Wood Stone oven.  Some of the signature dishes include a wood-roasted hot-smoked trout with shallots and chervil, a Mediterranean-flavored rack of lamb roasted with black olives and lemons, and a rustic-style flatbread pizza.

"Our restaurant's tagline is 'open fire cooking,'" says Malouf.  "The menu is very simple and ingredient driven, getting flavors from cooking techniques and fuels as opposed to sauces.  I use fresh herbs, dry rubs, spices and relishes to complement the food, but most of the flavor comes for the cooking techniques.  The flavors are imparted onto food through carmelization, charring and smoking."  His cooking style, says Malouf, "satisfies some very primal taste histories and memories that we as human beings have."

Malouf even uses his Wood Stone oven for dessert.  "Right now I'm doing a wood-roasted strawberry croustade, which is roasted on high heat quickly with balsamic vinegar and orange rind," says Malouf.  "It's served with a rustic sugar pastry in an orange crème chantilly."  He typically stokes his oven with ash, because it burns hot and clean, and occasionally uses fruitwood for hot or cold smoking.