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Kitchen-Testing the Best Pizza Ovens for Wood-Fire Pies at Home

Kitchen gadget tester Esther Choi and Mike Fadem of Brooklyn’s Ops put the Ooni 3 and the Roccbox through their paces

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The biggest speed bump for making the perfect at-home pizza is the oven. Standard ovens that just don’t reach temperatures high enough (ideally 750 to 800 degrees), and specialty pizza ovens often carry high price tags. While plenty of gadget makers have tried to solve for both the temperature and price problem (even in quirky ways, like this oven shaped like a delivery pizza box), none have totally done it.

So back to test more pizza ovens is The Kitchen Gadget Test Show host Esther Choi, joined by the owner and chef of essential Brooklyn pizzeria Ops, Mike Fadem. In a side-by-side test Choi and Fadem are trying out the Roccbox Portable Pizza Oven ($700) and the Ooni 3 Pizza Oven ($275). Both ovens are portable and promise to heat up to 900 degrees, cooking pizzas in the classic Neapolitan style: lightning fast on high heat — but when it comes to comparing the two, does a higher price tag indicate a better product?

Editor’s note: We tested both ovens using wood pellets; Roccbox says kiln-dried wood will work in their ovens more efficiently.

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