One of the secrets of making a great pizza is a using deck oven with a good pizza stone. Many pizza places use conveyer belt ovens that blow heat over the pizza. Usually the pizza travels on a screen from one end to the other regulated by an automatic timer. This kind of oven speeds up the process and requires no skill or training.

Baking the pizza directly on a hearty stone is the only way to duplicate the rustic original way of baking pizzas and breads even though it requires more time and skill.
 
The stone we use at Pizzeria La Collina is more than just any brick stone. It’s made from several heat resistant minerals. Daily heating and cooling can cause regular stones to expand and possibly crack. Our stone is more stable at high temperatures and is virtually heat proof.
 
Additionally, the stone is more dense (non-porous) so it will not stain. If anything spills on it, won’t penetrate the stone and affect the taste of other pizzas.
Part of this stone is iron which causes faster heat conductivity. Another part is clay, which is necessary to maintain an even intense heat and absorb moisture from the dough, resulting in a firm, crispy crust.

Finally a good stone is like a good wine–it only gets better with age. And because we’ve been open for 7 years, our pizza stone by now is well-seasoned.