Call it what you may (brick, clay or masonry oven), nothing screams earthy and natural as a wood fired oven does. The hunt to find a skilled artisan to build our custom brick oven began in earnest 6 months ago. Several leads to get an expert oven builder led to nothing. Even a trip to Adabraka, where we had read about a fascinating 100 year old domedo (roast pork) business made in a traditional wood fired clay oven proved uninspiring. However, the frustration was not to last long. We had put the word out in our circle and a few weeks into the search a photo was sent to us in London taken in a house (The Adjetey residence) at Mate Tsuru, Airport residential area, in Accra. It was a photo of a rather impressive brick oven, exactly what I had in mind.
Literally, within the hour of receiving the photograph we had made the necessary phone calls and managed to track the name and contact details of the builder. Sammy came round to MyWeku Gardens shortly after we spoke. Costs and location of the oven were discussed and a deal to build it made. The only snag was that Sammy had to delay the building until the grounds of MyWeku Garden where the oven would be sited was cladded in stone. In the meantime the necessary materials (bricks, sand, cement etc) for the brick oven were bought and stored onsite.
It has taken about 3 months but this week Sammy and his coworker are onsite ready to start the build. A base was built and left to cure first, then the brick dome was carefully handcrafted on top of it. At one point a wawa board was inserted into the build to help shape and mould the dome. This is painstaking work that we are told will take three and a half days to complete.
