The success or failure of a pizzeria depends on many factors: the location of the place, the manager’s ability to organize the work and manage the staff, the skill of the pizza chef, the quality of the raw materials and above all the professional equipment, so-called tools of the trade.
It is true that if the pizza chef does not know how to do it, it will be useless to provide them with the most innovative and performing machinery, but it is equally true that the equipment for pizzerias can make the difference because it puts the pizza chef in the conditions to carry out his work in the best possible way and it also allows you to optimize processing and improve the product itself.
In this article we will focus on the equipment for preparing pizza (also taking a look at the Italforni professional ovens) and we will find out what must not be missing in a pizzeria in order to establish itself as a successful business.
- Open a pizzeria: what equipment do you need?
- Pizzeria equipment: what can change according to the type of place
- What are the costs to open a pizzeria?
- What equipment to buy to open a pizzeria: conclusions
Open a pizzeria: what equipment do you need?
What is meant by pizzeria equipment? The first thing that comes to mind is undoubtedly the oven, the undisputed protagonist of the room, but not least is the mixer, which allows you to obtain a perfect dough and speed up processing.
This is followed closely by professional slicers, the pizza rolling machine, any fryer, refrigerators, refrigerated counters, leavening drawers and all the other tools needed in everyday life.
His majesty the oven
Without the oven, the pizzeria does not exist: this is why in starting the business we can only start with him, the cooking tool.
The first dilemma concerns the type: better wood, gas, electric or tunnel?
Regardless of the type chosen, which varies according to specific needs, it is important to emphasize that you should never skimp on the price of pizzeria equipment. It is preferable to save something on furniture (for example), but aim for the highest quality for the professional oven.
The ideal is to have a technologically advanced model, which is capable of containing consumption and optimizing / speeding up processing, but at the same time intuitive, simple to use and with little maintenance.
In this sense, the wood-fired oven should be excluded, as it is the most expensive, the most difficult to manage and requires time and costs for cleaning and maintenance.
Modern electric and gas ovens, on the other hand, are extremely functional and offer superior cooking quality: thanks to the automation of the process and the presence of numerous functions, the new generation electric and gas ovens guarantee very high temperatures and uniform cooking.
Italforni electric ovens
To date, the professional electric oven is the most chosen and used solution in pizzerias.
This is because the electric model, especially if it is innovative and equipped with latest generation technologies, offers many and obvious advantages, including:
- Uniformity of cooking
- Humidity control
- Possibility to customize cooking, since the heat is generated by the resistances and it is possible to have different temperatures between the base and the top
- Production efficiency
- Reduced consumption
- Speed in reaching high temperatures
- Automated management of the ideal temperature
- Ease of use
- Virtually no maintenance (there are no combustion residues)
- Innovative design
Among the most performing Italforni electric ovens we find:
- Caruso, ideal for Neapolitan pizza
- Visor, available in 3 different configurations (basic extraction hood, high-performance design hood and design hood and side covers)
- Bull, in steel and tempered glass
- Diamond, the jewel-oven with an innovative design which, in addition to guaranteeing excellent cooking performance, offers an incomparable scenic impact
For a more in-depth comparison between Italforni advanced technology models, and to discover the rest of the range, you can consult the catalog.
The mixer: another indispensable tool for a pizzeria
We know that for the success of the pizza, the dough is essential. Even when the raw materials are of quality and the pizza chef is good, the mixer represents an added value and a precious help. Not only because it guarantees a perfect result, improves the softness and digestibility of the pizza, but also because it speeds up operations and optimizes production.
As with the professional oven, even on the mixer it is forbidden to skimp on quality: these are equipment that is too important for the result (pizza!).
For a pizzeria, the planetary mixer is not very suitable. Better to focus on the spiral model, which offers better stringing and greater versatility for the various types of dough, or on the fork model, which instead has better oxygenation and guarantees a softer dough.
The pizza rolling machine
There are those who think that the real pizza is only the one rolled out by hand. In fact, nowadays, especially take-away pizzerias, which have to churn out pizzas at the speed of light, cannot give up the convenience of the pizza machine. In fact, there are too many operational advantages to think about giving them up.
First of all, it is a technical aid, because, like all machines, it offers precision and fast “ironing”: the pizza is immediately ready to be garnished and baked.
In addition, it relieves the tension and pressure of pizza chefs, especially on busy evenings, and helps the less experienced.
Tools and accessories that improve the life of the pizza chef
In addition to the main pizzeria equipment, there are many other tools and accessories that can further improve the daily work in the pizzeria, including:
- Aluminum shovels: available in various sizes, they are indispensable tools for putting pizza in and out of the oven in total safety
- Spatula: it is used both to collect (and not disperse) dough and flour, and to handle the leavened dough balls and to start processing them on the counter
- Brushes: used to clean the oven at the end of the working day
- Palino: it is useful for checking and turning the pizza inside the oven
These tools, made available to the pizza chef, can make his work even more precise, effective, fast and safe.
Pizzeria equipment: what can change according to the type of place
The basic equipment, as well as the accessories, may vary according to the type of room. For example, the pizza by the slice uses baking trays, while pizzerias and pizza restaurants do not need them.
What changes is also the size of the oven and the mixer – which varies according to the place settings and the type of product offered – as well as the functional furnishings.
The more the place is “large” in terms of demand, the larger the furnishings will also be (the counter for working the dough, for example); the fridge will be larger, the oven and mixer larger and so on.
What are the costs to open a pizzeria?
Opening a pizzeria means undertaking a potentially very profitable business, if we think that pizza is a unique product loved by everyone: Italians and foreigners.
It is also true, however, that competition is fierce and in order to emerge it is necessary to offer a product of the highest quality and to be able to stand out for a particularity, for something that others do not have.
Why else should the customer choose to come to our place instead of the one in the next street?
In essence, to be successful, you need to invest. The items on which you absolutely cannot skimp, as already mentioned, are: the professional equipment and the staff.
Once you have chosen the type of place – the classic pizzeria with table service and / or take away or a pizzeria by the slice – you can move in two directions: open the place “from scratch” or enter a franchise.
This last option allows you to limit the initial costs, while if we want to act on our own, with our own brand or brand, we will have to take into account the following expense items:
- The bureaucratic costs
- The purchase or lease of the premises
- The compliance of the room
- The oven and other equipment
- The pizza chef and the staff
- The furniture
- Advertising and marketing
Costs vary from city to city and from area to area. However, in general terms, to open a pizzeria we should budget for a minimum cost of between 100,000 and 120,000 euros.
Having your own premises would help a lot to reduce costs, especially in the start-up phase.
Lower investments for a pizzeria by the slice – between 50,000 and 60,000 euros – and for pizzerias dedicated exclusively to take-away, with costs between 35,000 and 45,000 euros.
What equipment to buy to open a pizzeria: conclusions
In this article we have taken a look at the essential machinery to open a successful pizzeria: first of all the professional oven, but also a good mixer, a pizza rolling machine to optimize production and a series of other accessories and tools that facilitate the work of the pizza chef.
To contain the costs of starting up the pizzeria we can save on everything, except on the quality of the cooking tool.
This is why it is essential to choose a high-tech model, such as the electric, gas and Tunnel ovens of Italforni, a leading company in the sector.