The Art of Wood Fired Cooking

Andrea Mugnaini didn’t invent cooking on a wood fire but she has become a leading importer of wood fired ovens for home and restaurant use. Since she sells the ovens it is only natural that she offer up instruction on how to cook with one.

Cooking at home on a wood fired oven is much different than an oven that is used by a restaurant. A restaurant oven is typically larger offering more space for different cooking areas. It also has the advantage of being used every day, so starting the oven and maintaining a even cooking temperature is much easier than a home oven that may be lighted only for a weekend.


After years of working and teaching others how to cook in their wood oven, Andrea Mugnaini has taken the tricks that she has perfected and collated them for the novice wood oven cook.

The book has that we-live-like-Italians-in-Napa lifestyle vibe to it. (Not that pretending to be Italian at my house with the big wood-burning oven in the Napa Valley would be a bad thing.)


You have to hand it to Andrea Mugnaini, she doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to force you buy one of her ovens. She clearly states that if you have the book, you probably have a wood-burning oven. Frankly, the book is way cheaper than a Mugnaini Oven, so if you don’t have one, just cook in the fireplace. Mugnaini also points out that there is no “specific” recipe to cook in a wood burning oven, that most anything can be converted to cook in such an oven. Conversely, most any of the recipes in The Art of Wood Fired Cooking can be tweaked to cook in an oven, though they will be lacking in the lovely char and smoke of wood heat.

Now, part of having that Italian/Napa vibe is the need to make great, unfussy, lovely food. There are no foams, or complicated sauces. The food is painfully fresh and straight forward, and this is one of the best.

Wood-Roasted Butterflied Shrimp

2 pounds large shrimp, shell on
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Remove the shells up to the tail segment and remove the vein from the shrimp. Cut through the shrimp to open like a book, being careful not to cut all the way through. Repeat until all the shrimp are butterflied.

Place shrimp in a medium bowl and add the remaining ingredients; toss together. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove from the refrigerator and place onto a sheet pan, cut side down with the tail curled over the shrimp. Place in the oven and roast 3-5 minutes or until pink and firm to the touch.

There is a problem. If you do not have a wood burning oven, my advice is not to buy this book, because the second you start looking at the recipes, you will be understandably tempted to get a wood burning oven for your yard, whether your yard is in West Virginia, Alabama or even the Napa Valley. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Crazy Sista Cooking

Lucy (Lulu) Buffett lives in L.A. (Lower Alabama). Yes, her brother is Warren Buffett. No, her brother is Jimmy Buffett. Yes, she parties just like Jimmy. And she has her very own place to party, Lulu's at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, Alabama. As you might expect, Crazy Sista Cooking is just that, a bit crazy but always good. Lulu learned to cook like many women, at the apron strings of family members. Buffett ascribes her love of cooking her grandmothers.

"My maternal Grandmother Peets was the dietitian for Gulf Park College, a girls' finishing school in Long Beach, Miss. She had elegant taste, although she was a working woman all of her life. My paternal Grandmother Buffett grew up in a boarding house and she was constantly in her Pascagoula, Miss., kitchen cooking vast and scrumptious Gulf Coast meals. It was the best of both worlds for me.

These recipes are designed to make cooking fun and easy. They are the kind of recipes that just might fool you into believing that you are watching the L. A. sunset. These are not "dine alone" recipes. They are best served with lots of cold beer and lots of good friend. Or acquaintances who will quickly become good friends if you keep feeding them from this cookbook. This recipe was the one Lucy used when she competed in Great American Seafood CookOff.

Screaming Easy Wild Shrimp Wasabi

1 tablespoon wasabi powder
1/4 cup beer (I use Corona beer and drink the rest while cooking)
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 pounds large headless shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails intact
1//2 teaspoon course sea salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
Lime slices for garnish

1. Combine wasabi powder, beer and horseradish. Set aside.

2. Peel and de-vein shrimp, leaving tails intact.

3. Place a cast iron skillet over high heat. When it begins to smoke, add shrimp. Shake skillet and toss or stir shrimp for 15 seconds or until they just begin to turn pink.

4. Add salt, wasabi mixture and butter. Stir quickly, turning shrimp for another 15 seconds, then cover tightly and remove from heat. Let shrimp rest for 5 minutes.

5. Add cilantro, stir once, and cover again. Wait another 5 minutes.

6. Garnish with lime slices and serve immediately.

Now that brother Jimmy has acquired Landshark beer, I'm sure that the Corona has been replaced. If you want a spicy good time, give this a try.

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

It seems fair that we should follow up Dione Lucas with one of her most successful students. Paula Wolfert, who left college to cook after being mesmerized by Lucas, has a new cookbook, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. Wolfert did her mentor proud, as she was recently inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame by the James Beard Foundation.

I love cooking in clay pots. There is something so genuine and truly lovely about them. I confess that one of the "things-I-need-to-do-before-I-die" is to make my own clay pots for my kitchen.

In the meantime, Spanish cazuelas are my favorite and Wolfert recommends an 11-or 12-inch Spanish cazuela or straight-sided flameware skillet for this recipe. There really is no more perfect dish than this, succulent shrimp, fresh garlic, a hit of heat all in a nice oil. Add some bread and you cannot go wrong.

Sizzling Shrimp with Garlic and Hot Peppers

1 pound peeled small (about 60) or medium-large, deveined (24 to 30) shrimp
1 scant cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon mildly hot dried red pepper such as Aleppo or Marash
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon sweet pimentón de la Vera (smoked Spanish paprika)
4 to 6 slices chewy country bread

1. Rinse the shrimp and wipe dry with paper towels. Leave them at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes so they are not ice cold when they hit the pan.

2. Combine the olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper in the cazuela. Set it over medium-low heat and warm the pan slowly, gradually raising the heat to medium or medium-high until the oil is hot. Continue to cook until the garlic sizzles and just turns golden, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Immediately add all the shrimp and cook until they are firm and curled, 2 to 4 minutes, depending on their size.

4. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons hot water and pinches of sea salt and pimentón. Serve at once right from the pot with the bread for soaking up the delicious oily sauce.

If you are interested in clay pots or great kitchens, here is a photo from the L.A. Times of Wolfert in her kitchen surrounded by pots.


I could cook there.

Frank Stitt’s Southern Table

In the 1980’s after delivering his manuscript for The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy sat on a plane next to the a guy from Alabama. The guy was a chef, though he had never run his own restaurant, but that was going to change. He was headed home to Alabama to open a restaurant in Birmingham. Conroy was skeptical. Frank Stitt changed his mind and along the way, he fundamentally changed the viewed of Southern cuisine. Birmingham is now a major foodie destination in the South.

Photo: Southern Living

His first restaurant, Highland Bar and Grill consistently finds itself on lists of top restaurants in America. Stitt melds local, indigenous ingredients with his classically trained cooking style to produce food that is at once familiar and dizzily unique. While you may find Kobe Beef Carpaccio is on the menu or Courteney Cox sitting at the really great table in the front, Stitt still knows how to make a mean pimento cheese. His book, Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill is one of my favorites.

Here is a great party favorite that is familiar and fun. Pickle Shrimp is always popular. Stitt notes that boiling shrimp makes it tough so he advises bringing the liquid to a boil then reducing to a simmer. Add the shrimp and as soon as the water starts to simmer again, remove it from the heat. Then drain.

Pickled Shrimp

3 pounds boiled small to medium shrimp, peeled
2 medium onions, quartered and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 lemons, thinly sliced
14 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
4 dried hot chile peppers
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss thoroughly. Pack everything into a large glass jar, cover, and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to come together.

All the Veal & Sweetbreads and Kobe Beef Carpaccio in the world can't hold a candle to opening the refrigerator and finding a big jar of pickled shrimp sitting there waiting. I love summer!