There is a moment, somewhere between lighting the fire and sliding the first pizza into a 400-degree wood-fired oven, when you realise you are not actually prepared. Your clothes are on their way to being ruined. Your wrists are dangerously close to something very hot. And you are about to wipe your floury hands on your jeans.
We have seen this moment. It is why we make aprons and gauntlets. Consider this a gentle intervention.
The Case for the Apron
A good apron is one of those things you don't fully appreciate until you don't have one. Then, when you're standing at the pizza oven in your best linen shirt, you appreciate it very much indeed — just too late.
Our aprons are made from 100% hard-wearing cotton, in designs that run from the boldly striped (the Chihuahua, the Waikiki, the whole Rainbow Stripe family) to the quietly confident plain colours of our Carom range. They are, in short, very good at their jobs. Here is what those jobs are:
- They protect your clothes. From tomato sauce, flour, olive oil, charcoal, and all the other things that seem to find their way onto your person the moment you begin cooking seriously outdoors.
- They look properly good. This is not a trivial point. If you are going to stand at a pizza oven for two hours while your guests drink wine and watch, you might as well look like you know what you are doing.
- They are the world's best impromptu hand-towel. Our aprons are perfectly acceptable hand-wiping surfaces. That is what they are there for. Use them accordingly.
- They double as a tea towel in a crisis. Picking up a hot dish, drying a glass, emergency flour-wiping — an apron is endlessly versatile.
- They wash beautifully. 100% cotton, machine washable, no fuss. At the end of the evening, throw it in the wash. It will come out looking excellent.
- They last for years. Our aprons are made to survive serious, repeated cooking over a very long time. Buy one; still be wearing it in a decade.
The Case for the Gauntlet
The gauntlet is a more specific piece of equipment, and it deserves a specific recommendation: if you have a wood-fired pizza oven, a BBQ, or any kind of open fire in your garden, you need one. Full stop.
Our gauntlets give full hand and wrist coverage — significantly more protection than a standard oven mitt — which matters enormously when you are manoeuvring a pizza peel inside a 400-degree stone oven, adjusting a grate over hot coals, or doing the slightly hair-raising task of cleaning out a still-warm BBQ before your guests arrive.
- They protect your arms from radiant heat. The opening of a wood-fired oven throws out serious heat. A gauntlet covers the gap between sleeve and hand that a mitt leaves exposed — and that gap is exactly where it hurts.
- They are the right tool for cleaning a hot grill. Scrubbing down a BBQ grate while it's still warm? That is a gauntlet job. Do not attempt it with a standard oven glove.
- They are excellent for managing open fire. Adding wood, adjusting coals, steadying a kettle — anything that involves sustained proximity to an open heat source.
One important note: our gauntlets are designed for the BBQ, pizza oven, and open fire. They are not suited to removing hot dishes from a conventional oven — for that, our oven mitts are the right choice. Using the right tool for the job is, after all, the whole point.
In terms of design, our gauntlet range runs from the enduringly classic — the Ajanta Blue Check, a perennial favourite — to the vivid (the Chihuahua, which is an explosion of colour and has been spotted on Prue Leith). There is something for every kitchen aesthetic, including those that don't have a kitchen aesthetic so much as a general commitment to getting the pizza right.
The Sum of the Parts
What a good apron and a good gauntlet give you, together, is the freedom to cook without thinking about your clothes, your wrists, or your safety — which means you can think about what actually matters: the food, the fire, and the people you are cooking for.
Both are machine washable, both will last years, and both are available in matching designs so that if you want to look fully coordinated while operating a wood-fired oven in your garden, you absolutely can.
We're not here to judge. We're here to help.