Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

[carioca]

Just stumbled across this eBay advert - what an enterprising guy! No takers so far, though, so if he hopes to pay for his 'firebrick folly' in this manner, he may have to cut prices a bit...

eBay Australia: Wood Fired Oven Outdoor Dinner for 2 (item 280089714489, end time 14-Mar-07 12:05:18 AEDST)


Cheers!


Carioca

NB: this link comes courtesy of my wife, averse to all things potentially polluting, who'd done a Google search on pizza ovens trying to find incontrovertible evidence that wood fired Pompeii type ovens accelerate global warming...

In another aside: our new head of the ANSTO research organisation, Ziggy Switkowsky, has averred that because it is global warming, not national warming, nothing that we do in Australia has the slightest impact either way on the outcome! This from a man who just strongly endorsed nuclear enegry as the preferred option (over dirty coal, for instance). Being a scientist, of course, he doesn't notice the contradiction -- or perhaps it's 'reverse polish notation' :-)

[james]

Re: Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

Very enterprising. I'm going to keep watching to see what happens.
James

[CanuckJim]

Re: Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

Carioca, James,

Heck, I'll put on a six course dinner for six at $1000 Canadian and still make some bucks on it.

Jim

[james]

Re: Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

Jim,

Are you planning on doing bread baking classes this spring and summer? If you are, let me know and we can announce the dates here.
James

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

Wow $1500, and I'm only charging half of that!

[CanuckJim]

Re: Howzat!? for enterprise... (done like a dinner!)

James,

I don't really have a set class schedule right now, but I will be offering courses during the spring and summer. I like to keep the classes to a maximum of six, so everybody gets an equal chance. My normal procedure is to collect enquiries, and when there are enough people, I set a date over a weekend that's convenient for everybody. These are intensive two day courses: Day One: dough theory, dough prep, mixers, ingredients, temps, retardation, wood selection, oven management, and evening firing. Day Two: morning firing (if needed in winter), timing, one-day breads if any (kaisers, eg), heat and oven management, and baking. I like to let the students choose the types of bread they want to make, so long as it doesn't get too crazy in the prep area. I print out the formulas for them to take along, as well as their breads, of course. Also, I feed my starters a healthy meal over a few days so each student can take some home to propagate. This would depend on whether a white, whole wheat or rye starter was wanted. Some people prefer the milder bread flour white, some the more acidic wheat, some the very acidic rye. Depends.

Thus far, it's been pretty casual, but I can definitely see the need for a set schedule in the future.

Jim