Long Island Baker Doubles Baking Capacity While Dramatically Reducing Energy Costs

Monreale Bakery has been family owned since 1975. Matteo DiFiore, founder of Monreale Bakery grew up in Italy where he learned the business. Today, Matteo's son Joe DiFiore continues baking bread to his fathers high standards, always by scratch, with no mixes, preservatives or freezing. High quality Italian loaves, heros, rolls and baguettes are baked daily by Joe and his staff at his new facility in Hicksville, NY.

For years, the DiFiore family had been using a revolving tray oven to bake their hearth goods. At the time, revolving ovens offered the best alternative to traditional brick oven baking because they required less space and were easier to load and unload than traditional brick ovens.

However, certain drawbacks such as fuel efficiency, excessive labor, inconsistent quality and increased maintenance prompted Joe to look for a better solution. While planning the Hicksville bakery, Joe found himself searching for larger and more efficient ovens at a local trade show. It was there that Joe learned about vapor tube oven technology.

After researching all the possibilities, Joe purchased a new Vapor Tube Deck Oven from Empire Bakery Equipment. This purchase has made a great impact on Monreale Bakery's success.

With the New Deck Oven, Joe was able to almost double his production capacity to 79 pans, save space, improve both the taste and shelf life of his bread, and drastically lower his fuel costs.

Bake Quality and Shelf Life

The secret to brick oven baking is the oven's ability to retain its heat evenly when the oven is loaded with bread and the bake chamber is filled with steam.

The Vapor Tube Deck Oven utilizes thick walled tubes that contain a small amount of water that radiates the heat evenly to the stone baking surfaces. These heavy duty tubes have high heat retention properties so there is little fluctuation in oven temperature while baking.

The result is a consistent bake quality."The bread tastes better because it is more moist on the inside and consistently crusty on the outside. This has also helped to increase the bread's shelf life" stated Joe.

Floor Space and Labor Savings

In an Empire Stone-Hearth Vapor Tube Deck Oven, the baking surfaces are stacked vertically, so the oven requires less floor space.

A Semi-Automatic Loader - Unloader carries the bread in and out of the oven, saving on labor because it eliminates the traditional method of hand loading and unloading with a wooden peel.

It only takes one operator to handle the new Empire Oven which can hold up to 480, 8 oz. breads.

Fuel Efficiency and Construction

Because of the oven's heat retention and the low crown height of the baking chambers, the oven requires much less fuel to heat each deck.

In addition, the self-contained steam system eliminates the need for a boiler to produce steam for baking.

"My energy usage is now one fourth what it was when I was using the old revolving oven", stated Joe. "The addition of the Empire Vapor Tube Deck Oven has really made my life easier. I rely on Empire Bakery Equipment for all of my equipment and smallwares purchases. Empire always provides me with the quality and service I need to keep my business running smoothly."

Empire Bakery Equipment offers the LF Vapor Tube Stone Hearth Deck Oven in 3 and 4 deck models up to 4 doors wide with a maximum capacity of 79 pans.

For more information on all Empire Deck Ovens and all Bakery Production Equipment
Contact Empire Bakery Equipment

1-800-878-4070 or 516-681-1500