66 MAY / JUNE 2022 popularmechanics.co.za
ere in Singapore,
we went into
full-on lockdown
in 2020. We were
allowed to go to the grocery
store, but otherwise we could
not go anywhere.
And I just got a hankering
for some pizza. But the ovens
here are pretty small, like the
size of a microwave. I tried to
make a pizza on my gas braai
by sliding it directly on to the
grid, but it was just all right. I
wanted that leopard- spotted
bottom, and the charred
bubbles on the crust. I saw
online there were some pizza
ovens selling in the US that
BY DEVIN STEWART, AS TOLD TO TAYLOR ROJEKH
A Steel-baking tray to fi t your grill
B Stainless-steel serving tray
C 15 cm stainless-steel handle
D Pizza stone – mine is 32 cm in
diameter, but use what fi ts.
E 25 cm stainless-steel
dumpling trayMATERIALS- 35 washers
- 23 5 mm stainless-
steel screws - 23 stainless-steel
acorn nuts - 23 split-lock washers
- 2 stainless-steel elbows
WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING?go on top of a gas braai. And
I thought, maybe I can make
something like that.
My design uses a thick
steel baking tray as the base,
covered by a stainless-steel
dome with a pizza stone
attached at the top. The
baking tray is a better heat
conductor than the stone,
which lets it run several
degrees hotter. It works
really well – it gets super
hot on the bottom to give
the crust that pizza crunch,
while also trapping heat and
reflecting it downwards to
melt the cheese and make the
top crust pillowy.I’m originally from Texas,
where barbecue is big. It’s the
simplest food, but to get it
perfect is so hard. Pizza’s like
that too – to get it just right,
it takes so much practise. I’m
always trying to perfect it by
studying types of dough and
how to get the heat right (for
tips, see ‘How to make the
perfect pizza’ sidebar on p68).
Creating the oven was a
way for me to escape mentallyand creatively during lock-
down. It’s also helped me
reconnect with friends.
Lockdowns have since eased
up and we now have a few
people over at a time. And
people are pretty amazed.
Like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re
making this on your grill!’
Even in the middle of a
pandemic, there’s nothing
better than good home-made
pizza to share with friends.A grill-top
pizza oven