Alan Scott (2 March 1936 – 26 January 2009) was a blacksmith and

baking Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...

traditionalist who designed and built brick ovens and coauthored a book promoting their use for cooking

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

s and

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

. He built ovens in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and started the Ovencrafters company.

Life

Scott was born in

Toorak Toorak may refer to: * Toorak, Victoria, an inner south-eastern suburb of Melbourne *Toorak College, Mount Eliza, approximately 40 km south of Melbourne * Toorak Gardens, South Australia, an inner eastern suburb of Adelaide initially named Toorak * ...

in Victoria, Australia on 2 March 1936. He graduated from

Dookie Agricultural College Melbourne University, Dookie campus (formerly known as Dookie Agricultural College) is an agricultural campus of Melbourne University near the town of Dookie, Victoria. It is the oldest agricultural college in Victoria. The campus has a broadacre ...

, and afterwards went to work for a fertilizer company. Leaving his job at 25, Scott traveled throughout Australia, Ethiopia,

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, and Denmark—all hitchhiking. Eventually, he settled in Denmark and opened a jewelry store. Scott emigrated to the United States from Australia in the mid-1960s, where he opened a smithy in Northern California. When a friend, Laurel Robertson, commissioned him to forge handles for a brick oven she intended to build, Scott became interested in the oven itself. He redesigned the oven to better retain heat. Scott soon became an expert in the construction and use of brick ovens. In 1999, he published ''The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens'' with his apprentice Daniel Wing. ''The Bread Builders'' contained a treatise on the history and science of bread making, and gave detailed specifications for how to build a brick oven. The book eventually sold over 25,000 copies. Returning to Australia in 2004, Scott opened a practice in Oatlands. He also became involved in the effort to recommence operations at the

Callington Mill Callington Mill is a Lincolnshire tower mill built in 1837 in Oatlands, Tasmania Oatlands is an important historical village on the shores of Lake Dulverton in the centre of Tasmania, Australia. Oatlands is located 84 km north of Hobar ...

. Scott's interest in the project stemmed in part from the desirable properties of slowly stone-ground flour, which include the wheat's germ oil being ground into the flour and the retention of nutrients due to low milling temperatures. Scott died on 26 January 2009 in Tasmania of congestive heart failure. His company, Ovencrafters, is now run by his children. The company designs and builds custom brick ovens, and has designed and created numerous ovens for clients throughout the United States, as well as in other countries, including Canada and Australia.

Advocacy

Scott spent much of his time conducting workshops and overseeing the building of community ovens, which he believed brought communities together. He further lectured on and encouraged small-scale industry, environmental stewardship, community connectivity and spiritual consideration. His business, Ovencrafters, pushed for "policy with principles, commerce with morality, wealth with work, and science with humanity".

Bibliography

References

External links

Ovencrafters

Interview with Alan Scott
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Alan Australian blacksmiths American bakers 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers 1936 births 2009 deaths