Breville's new $800 indoor pizza oven made me one of the best pizzas of my life in 120 seconds flat
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- If you're looking to splurge on yourself or your resident gourmand this holiday season, the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo by Breville (currently on sale for $800 at Williams-Sonoma) is the best way to treat yourself to truly gourmet pizza.
- By heating up to 750 degrees in just a few minutes, the Pizzaiolo made me one of the best pizzas of my life in 120 seconds flat.
- Whether you're an amateur cook or perhaps looking to start a new pizza joint, this may just be the investment for you.
- If you're not looking for that level of innovation, then Breville's Crispy Crust Pizza Maker (currently on sale for $150 at Williams-Sonoma) as a good alternative. At just $150, this is a much more accessible oven, and still offers quick turnarounds on delicious pizzas.
There's no way around it. An $800 pizza oven is a splurge.
But splurges are not necessarily wastes of money, because the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo by Breville couldn't be farther from money not well spent. Rather, this clever countertop pizza oven is capable of turning any household into the most delectable pizzeria in any neighborhood, complete with the smells of a wood-fired oven. So if you're looking for something a little extravagant this holiday season (or to start churning out professional pizzas in your kitchen), Breville can lend a helping hand.
Heralded as the world's first indoor countertop pizza oven, this is one machine that has impressed both amateur pizza makers (like me) and the pros (like Daniel Parillo of Da Legna fame) alike. Chef Parillo, the man behind the best pizza in New Haven, Connecticut (seriously, if you're ever in Connecticut, check them out), known for its unbelievable crust and distinctive wood-fired taste, helped me demo the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo (and turn me into a burgeoning pizza connoisseur).
What truly sets this oven apart is its unprecedented ability to heat up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit in a snap, resulting in pizzas that are perfectly ready to eat in just two minutes.
In fact, Chef Parillo and I were turning out pizzas literally faster than anyone could eat them, and if I had any interest in opening up a pizza restaurant myself, the Pizzaiolo would be one of my first purchases.
So why does that 750-degree mark matter?
As Catherine Ruspino, global business manager of cooking at Breville told Business Insider, "We know that pizza is universally loved, however, our research indicated that people weren't making it at home that often. The reason: They couldn't replicate the results of buying it from an establishment." That's because a true Neapolitan-style pizza requires extremely high temperatures previously achievable only by wood-fired ovens.
"Traditional home ovens simply couldn't get that hot," Ruspino continued. "So unless our customer wanted to invest a lot of money, $25,000 to be exact, and had a lot of space, they would never be able to be able to achieve the same result. It turns out your conventional oven at home simply doesn't get hot enough to achieve that distinctive wood-fired char that distinguishes Neapolitan pizza from all other slices.
Part of what makes the smart oven so impressive is its unique Element IQ System, which is actually found not only in the Pizzaiolo, but in all of Breville's ovens. Essentially, this system can detect how hot the interior of the oven is, helping to create and maintain an ideal baking environment. While Parillo and I still gave our pizzas one spin at about the 1-minute mark, it's remarkable how evenly the pizzas actually baked. You won't have to worry about burnt crust on one end and raw dough on the other.
Beyond making pizza, the smart oven can also make a number of other dishes and sides thanks to its heating technology.
Whether you want to char vegetables of make flatbreads, the Pizzaiolo can help. It also comes with seven convenient pre-sets so that you can quickly select the ideal temperature for your dish (though the manual dial works just as well). The oven comes with an auto-eject door that automatically pulls out the pizza stone so you don't have to worry about burning yourself, and double glass pane doors that help insulate the oven surprisingly well.
"We find that when we make it easier for home cooks to get a better result, it opens up their creativity and desire to try new types of baking and cooking," Ruspino said. "The Pizzaiolo oven does that in the realm of pizza - giving people the confidence to make, for example, Neapolitan, Chicago, or classic New York pies. Moreover, the oven's manual mode, which allows users to control the deck temperature as well as the temperatures of the crust and toppings, is an incredibly versatile tool that we've already seen embraced by the most serious pizza makers; they are, frankly, astounded by the temperature combinations and possibilities that the manual mode affords."
Of course, it's not the case that this $800 oven will be for everyone, and Ruspino recognizes this.
"If you are looking for a Neapolitan-style pizza, or seeking a pizza oven with the technology to control a range of individual temperatures, then the Pizzaiolo is for you. No other domestic indoor pizza oven can give you the same degree of control to perfect the craft of home pizza making."
However, if you're not looking for that level of innovation, then Ruspino suggests making out Breville's Crispy Crust Pizza Maker (currently on sale for $150 at Williams-Sonoma) as a good alternative. At $150, this is a much more accessible oven, and still offers quick turnarounds on delicious pizzas.