| Alan Scott | |
| Birth Date: | 1936 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Toorak, Victoria |
| Death Place: | Tasmania, Australia |
| Known For: | Designing and building brick ovens and writing on the subject |
| Occupation: | Blacksmith |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Spouse: | Laura Scott |
| Children: | 3 |
Alan Scott (2 March 1936 - 26 January 2009) was a blacksmith and baking traditionalist who designed and built brick ovens and coauthored a book promoting their use for cooking breads and pizza.[1] He built ovens in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and started the Ovencrafters company.[2]
Scott was born in Toorak in Victoria, Australia on 2 March 1936. He graduated from Dookie Agricultural College, and afterwards went to work for a fertilizer company.[1] Leaving his job at 25,[3] Scott traveled throughout Australia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Denmark - all hitchhiking. Eventually, he settled in Denmark and opened a jewelry store.[1]
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.[1] 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.[1] [4] 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.[1] The book eventually sold over 25,000 copies.[5]
Returning to Australia in 2004, Scott opened a practice in Oatlands.[3] He also became involved in the effort to recommence operations at the Callington Mill.[3] 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.[3]
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,[1] and has designed and created numerous ovens for clients throughout the United States, as well as in other countries, including Canada and Australia.[6]
Scott spent much of his time conducting workshops and overseeing the building of community ovens, which he believed brought communities together.[2] [5] He further lectured on and encouraged small-scale industry, environmental stewardship, community connectivity and spiritual consideration.[2] His business, Ovencrafters, pushed for "policy with principles, commerce with morality, wealth with work, and science with humanity".[2]