In the highly partisan debate over which Bay Area restaurant makes the best pizza, Thomas McNaughton admitted his choice to use an electric oven is controversial.
For years, the CEO of Flour + Water Hospitality Group — a collection of six Bay Area restaurants and a food brand — couldn’t fathom an electric oven that produced the high heat critical for its award-winning pizza. Most pizza joints use gas or wood-fired ovens instead.
But that changed after he discovered professional electric pizza ovens around six years ago and fell in love with how they performed.
“ If you’re talking deck ovens, the electric models now outperform gas ovens 100%,” McNaughton said. “I didn’t realize how evolved the technology really is. They’re incredibly powerful.”…