The wonders of a wood burning oven – tips from Grupo Mayan
Our culinary experts at Grupo Mayan’s Mayan Resorts consistently hear positive feedback from food cooked in a wood burning oven. It is no mystery that food cooked by wood fire seems to have a certain extra something in the flavoring, that certain something that makes it taste better. This is something very apparent to Grupo Mayan timeshare culinary directors.
A number of the gourmet restaurants at Grupo Mayan Resorts, like Il Forno Di Gio, Havana Moon, and some Pool Snack bars, have been equipped with wood-burning clay ovens. These are usually visible to guests, so it adds more than just taste to your food. The oven really is a piece of art. It is covered in tile patterns that give it aesthetic appeal. Children, and other guests alike, frequent the area that allows you to see the chef and his rustic contraption preparing the fine food.
The oven is a large clay dome, with storage space underneath it for the firewood, and above, a chimney that goes high up through the ceiling to vent the fumes produced whilst cooking. Controlling the temperature is key to ensuring that the food tastes delicious. Once the fire is going inside the dome, they have to let it die down to the right temperature and try their best to keep it at that temperature to cook meals. The experienced Grupo Mayan’s Mayan Resorts chefs use the palm of their hands as a thermometer. About three to five seconds is how long they hold the palm of their hand at the entrance to the oven before having to pull it away. If the time gets too long it means that the fire is too weak and they need to kick it up. If the fire is too hot, the chefs cool the oven a bit. It definitely takes some experience to be able to control the temperature.
The addition of such a piece of equipment immediately makes Grupo Mayans Resorts restaurants more appealing. Offering wood fired meals is really a treat to most palettes. Pizzas are definitely the most popular items requested with the wood oven, but there are a number of other recipes that guests can enjoy, like hamburgers, chicken, crepes, beef skewers, freshly baked bread and the list goes on. A wood fired meal at one of Grupo Mayans restaurants (at Acapulco, Los Cabos, and all our other locations) is definitely a must.