Warm and crispy thanks to the inventiveness of Ticino

dieci is known for its couriers delivering the dieci pizza warm and crispy to the front door. But how is that possible?

One of the biggest challenges of a delivery service is to deliver the dishes to the customer as warm and crispy as possible. At the dieci pizza couriers, this works amongst other things thanks to a technical trick - the pizza oven which is built into the vehicle.

Waste heat keeps the pizza warm

The ovens are installed in all Fiat Pandas and are heated by a sophisticated system. Before driving, the oven gets preheated to 100° by an electric heater. As soon as the Panda is on the move, a connecting pipe leads the exhaust gas waste heat directly to a so-called heat exchanger, which heats up and transfers the heat to the chrome steel container and the pizzas lying inside. Between the inner and outer wooden container, the air circulates continuously and thus balances temperature and moisture. The advantages are tastable: The dieci pizzas, as other dishes, remain warm and fresh and keep their taste unchanged.

Who invented it?

The story for this ingenious and patented invention began 25 years ago in Bellinzona. Lorenzo Delzanno, who wanted to enter the pizza delivery business together with a friend, was looking for a solution. He wanted to deliver his pizza as warm as possible: "I asked my father for help. Although he had studied archaeology, he was also a passionate tinkerer who could solve any problem. And because he had taught himself a lot about mechanics, hydraulics and electricity, we soon had the first prototype." Only a few years later the courier, Speedy Meal, was able to expand to Lugano and Locarno, where they also developed an oven for scooters which they used due to traffic.

dieci comes into play

"Actually, we never intended to resell the technology. But at some point a pizza courier from Freiburg asked me if I would produce ovens for him too. I told him an outrageously high price to get him to back off, but he didn't. My father was pretty angry," says Lorenzo with a laugh. "My father thought he had invented the ovens for me, not for others. But now we had to deliver." Later, Lorenzo Delzanno thought about making better use of this demand and began to contact pizza delivery services directly. And the first person he called was Rocco Delli Colli, the founder of dieci.

The beginning of a long relationship

"Rocco Delli Colli was immediately interested and told us to come to Rapperswil and demonstrate our ovens," says Lorenzo. The performance of the ovens was extensively tested by tasting the pizzas before and after transport. "The dieci team was very positively surprised by the result and immediately ordered the first 40 ovens for their delivery fleet. Since then, the ovens have undergone a technical overhaul, but have never been fundamentally changed. And during the more than 20 years of cooperation, Lorenzo Delzanno, owner and managing director of Antidoto, has developed a very friendly relationship with dieci.

Have you never noticed the pizza oven in one of the 320 dieci cars? Just order your favourite pizza and watch out for the delivery vehicle: the bright red oven in the back seat is clearly visible.