A Gas-fired Pizza Oven that Delivers High Heat
March 10, 2015
The Robb Report
The Robb Report recently reviewed Kalamazoo’s Artisan Fire Pizza Oven in their “Robb Vices” section. Find out why they think that this gas-fired pizza oven is an excellent choice for your backyard.
An Oven as Easy as Pie
“Neapolitan pizza. It’s the sexiest carb, and one that we could eat every day. To do so—and to make a traditional Naples pie the right way—requires a pizza oven. Pizza aficionados with a spare-no-cost approach will likely look to their favorite pizza joints for inspiration, which means they’ll end up accenting their back patios with a wood-fired Italian oven made from stone and sand. Ovens like that typically weigh about 6,000 pounds, can cost as much as $20,000, and require between 2 and 3 hours to heat to the appropriate temperature. And while the prospect of a wood-fired oven is alluring, the thought of constantly sweeping up hot ash is not.
Fortunately, there’s an alternative, and it comes from an unlikely destination: south central Michigan. The folks at Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, a company known for its wood-fired, gas, and charcoal grills, have designed an outdoor pizza oven ($6,895) that weighs a scant 130 pounds and can reach full Neapolitan heat (about 800 degrees) in 45 minutes. At that infernal temperature, a pie will cook in less than 3 minutes. “The best thing is that it truly does mimic the heat of a wood-fired oven,” says Russ Faulk, Kalamazoo’s vice president of product development. “And it’s much, much simpler to use. You don’t have to master wood fire.”