Tried & Tested
The top-rated pizza oven that promises magnificent margheritas every time
A perfectly cooked pizza is everyone’s favourite meal, and stoking real flames every chef’s favourite cooking style. So meet the gastronomic gadget that will take you to Neapolitan pizza nirvana
Move over barbecues. There’s a new outdoor cooking obsession sweeping the nation. Replacing the usual burnt offerings served up at the usual Great British barbie, breakout brand Ooni promises to help you offer restaurant-grade flame-cooked pizzas in your own garden.
The brainchild of Kristian Tapaninaho, Ooni was born out of the UK-based Finn’s frustration with oven-baked pizzas. After countless soggy crusts and overcooked mozza, he realised that the problem was not being able to get his oven hot enough. Being a resourceful soul, Tapaninaho set about experimenting with a jerry-built contraption made from cinderblocks and a camping stove which, while not pretty, delivered in his words: ‘The nicest pizza I had ever tasted’.
Fast forward several years of trial and tribulation and Tapaninaho’s backyard success story has evolved into a business that gives you the same result, but using infinitely more elegant technology.
What is it?
While there are gas-fired only and mini portable pizza ovens in the Ooni range, I trialled the Karu 16 Multi Fuel which gives you the flexibility to cook using coals (like a traditional barbecue), gas bottles for ease of use, or my favourite real hunks of wood, which impart that authentic wood-fired flavour.
How easy is it to set up?
I’m no DIY pro, but the kit is a breeze to set up, you simply add the two heavy pizza stones, fit the chimney, grate, door and thermometer and you’re ready for ignition. You do need to think about what you’ll stand it on, (and Ooni sells modular trolleys that fit the oven perfectly) but any flat surface will do, even wood so the edge of a table, or counter is fine. You may want to think about where you’ll store it too. It’s a big piece of kit that will survive outside (and even better with the Ooni cover slipped over), but for winter it will fare better stored somewhere cool and dry.
The metrics that matter
How fun is it to cook with?You don’t need to be a pyromaniac to enjoy the smell of the woodsmoke and the view of flames licking the inside of the oven. Getting it up to the 500ºC you need to cook on takes practise, but it isn’t hard.
Is the pizza worth the effort?Even shop-bought pizzas are elevated by being cooked on a hot stone. But if you really want to impress, Ooni’s dough recipe is easy as pie and 100% worth the effort.
How great is it for parties?Once your oven is hot you can easily churn out pizza after pizza for guests in a matter of minutes. I’d be surprised if you didn’t consider jacking in your job to become a street food vendor.
What’s it like to cook with fire
Buying the Ooni gas burner for £79.99 and a bottle of gas would certainly take the guesswork of getting the oven to the exact temperature for pizza perfection, but I subscribe to the more primal pleasure of cooking old-school style with wood or coal. For this method, you will need to hover nearby to keep stoking the flames with fresh hardwood logs, but the smell and results are totally worth the effort.
Are the pizza worth it?
It’s a hard yes from me. For my first test and learn session I opted for bought Crosta & Mollica pizzas from Waitrose. Already slightly pre-cooked to add wood fired flavour to oven cooked offerings, they came out as crispy, oozing and smoky as it’s possible to get. But when I put in the effort with home-made dough and fresh toppings (adding anchovies to a simple margherita because I was feeling fancy), I could immediately see why Ooni is changing the outdoor cooking landscape.
Serving up crispy pizzas on a sunny autumn afternoon has now become a Spiring family habit, and it’s infinitely more fun and less faff than a roast. Sure, the initial investment is steep, but there is such pleasure in cooking with fire outside. It’s social, it’s fun, it’s unbelievably delicious. No wonder it gets 4.8/5 from John Lewis customers. Bon appetito!
