Masterclass Interview - Ben Guilford from The Fire Brick Company.

Join me as Season 2 of the Wood Fired Oven podcast kicks off with this amazing chat with Ben Guilford, founder of The Fire Brick Company in Australia. I flew to Melbourne and chatted to Ben in person for this incredible deep dive into his amazing wood fired oven manufacturing business. If you are curious about how these wood fired ovens are designed and work - take a listen to this episode.

Check out The Fire Brick Company website
Check out The Fire Brick Company YouTube channel
Follow Ben and his team on instagram: @thefirebrickco

Chapters

• 0:10 Introducing Ben Guilford
• 1:31 Chatting to customers
• 2:55 Where exactly are we today?
• 7:09 Impact of covid
• 11:20 University
• 12:02 Clive - The Wood Fired Oven Chef from YouTube
• 14:05 Ben's Family
• 18:05 Internship at an aerospace company
• 20:01 Why Wood Fired Ovens?
• 20:14 Global Financial Crisis (GFC)
• 21:17 Civil construction
• 21:25 Ben's Dad built a wood oven
• 23:21 Fire Bricks
• 26:59 Naming the company
• 34:22 Advantage of tight joints
• 34:55 Pompeii ovens
• 37:30 Working in precast yards
• 42:40 History of the Melbourne Fire Brick Co
• 45:53 D105 development
• 47:42 P85 development
• 51:19 New Website
• 59:44 Back to the history of the company
• 1:12:33 Four types of Wood Fired Oven Kits
• 1:13:47 Listener question from England
• 1:19:57 Tight joints and heat retention
• 1:21:54 Listener question - Spark Arrestors
• 1:27:40 Listener question - keystones
• 1:35:42 Moisture in the dome
• 1:38:42 Weather and your Wood Fired Oven
• 1:40:15 Understanding thermal shock with fire bricks
• 1:41:34 Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
• 1:45:08 Chris Vozzo Chris Vozzo (Instagram @il_forno_rosso)
• 1:50:00 Making a house for the wood oven
• 1:55:09 Covers for a wood oven
• 1:56:56 Landing slope to prevent rain
• 1:57:30 Weather guard
• 1:58:36 Wood fired oven under water!
• 2:01:52 Listener question - Getting someone to build your oven for you
• 2:03:28 Melbourne WFO builder (@melbourne.flamemason)
• 2:05:58 Using a wood fired oven as a smoker
• 2:20:31 Using andirons in the oven
• 2:24:31 Listener question - Andirons
• 2:26:01 Skewer rack - Mark's design
• 2:27:45 Hanging fish while cooking
• 2:30:55 Twenty quick fire questions for Ben