Vintage Wooden Pizza Peel with Top Handle from Chanteduc

A modified vintage wooden pizza peel from Chanteduc, Patricia Wells’s Provençal home and teaching kitchen. From Patricia’s personal collection, it was thoughtfully refined by her husband Walter in his wood workshop beside the garage at Chanteduc, where he has crafted wooden tools and furniture for decades. An extremely skilled craftsman, he adapted the board for tight hearth work. Patricia explains, "I don’t really want to sell this one. One day, I was cooking in the pizza oven and didn’t have much room to work, so it was difficult to pick up the wooden board. Walter went to his workshop and added the handle to the top for me. This is a hard one to part with." This pizza peel is featured on p.2 of Salad as a Meal, and p.219 The French Kitchen Cookbook, by Patricia Wells. Carved from solid wood, the broad oval face is formed from narrow planks with visible joinery, softly grained and dry to the touch. A smoothly arched top handle sits on a sturdy bracket. The surface shows a pale, silvered patina with honest wear at the rim and scattered marks from kitchen life. Generous in scale yet low in profile, it slides easily into a tight hearth and carries a family pizza or a round of breads with assurance. Hang it on a kitchen wall, lean it by the oven, or press it into service as a serving board for pizzas, breads, or cheese. A practical memento of Chanteduc, it reflects Patricia’s warm hospitality and Walter's thoughtfulness and creativity.