This $700 pizza oven gets up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes and cooks pizzas in 60 seconds - here's what it's like to use

Williams Sonoma

• A high-quality portable pizza oven should be easy to use and clean, reach temperatures higher than your standard oven, and bake pizzas quickly.
• I like the Roccbox Pizza Oven because it achieves temperatures up to 932 degrees Fahrenheit, is easy to set up, takes up minimal space, and can be used with gas or wood. At 44 pounds, it's reasonably easy to bring with you to parties or camping.
• Though it costs more than most pizza ovens at $699.95 from Williams Sonoma (and is an expensive purchase in general), it's backed by a one-year limited warranty. I've already used mine around 30 times in the past two months.

I love making pizza. A lot.

Once you have the right tools and a little practice, it requires minimal effort to make pies that are customized to your taste and cost a fraction of what you'd pay at a pizzeria. Plus, there are parts of the process that kids can help with such as adding their favorite toppings, so your whole family can bond over cooking dinner.

And though you can make homemade pizza in your standard kitchen oven, a high-temperature pizza oven will help take your pizza-making to the next level by allowing you to make true Neapolitan-style pies.

I recently had the opportunity to try the Roccbox Pizza Oven for the past two months and have made around 30 pies already. It makes delicious pizzas in 60 seconds, and is always a hit at home and at parties. Below are the details of my experiences with it and why it's worth the $700 investment.

Specs

Williams Sonoma

The Roccbox Pizza Oven comes in two colors - green and grey. I tested the green one, though both work exactly the same.

It's shaped almost like a dome, with the base on top of three legs that can be folded down for carrying or storage. The oven can fit a 12-inch pizza,

and there's a thermometer that displays temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

The oven comes with attachments for wood-burning and gas fuel (including a gas hose for connecting to a propane tank), a cover for the oven, a metal pizza peel, a hopper tool/bottle opener, and a user manual that features six recipes. You can also get more recipes by visiting the Gozney website, which is behind Roccbox.

Here are the dimensions and specs of the oven:

• Overall oven size width: 16.2 inches
• Oven length: 20.9 inches
• Height with legs extended: 18.6 inches
• Height with legs folded: about 11 inches
• Dimensions of the oven door: 12.2 inches wide by 3.3 inches tall
• Cooking floor dimensions: 12.4 inches wide by 13.3 inches deep
• Materials:
• Outer jacket - high-heat silicone
• Insulation - calcium silicate
• Body and legs - stainless steel
• Cooking floor - engineered stone
• Maximum temperature: 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius)

Set-up process

The Roccbox user manual is more than 300 pages long, but unless you can read another language besides English, you'll likely only need to flip through the first 60 pages. I spent about 15 minutes familiarizing myself with the manual, which can get confusing since it's written in a British style.

Fortunately, the oven isn't too complicated to set up and use - especially if you have experience with gas grills.

Setting up the Roccbox took about 10 minutes. First, you'll want to choose a well-ventilated spot outdoors for the oven. I chose my uncovered back deck.

Next, extend the legs and attach the heat source. I mainly used a propane tank since it was convenient, provides consistent heat, and is inexpensive.

To start using the Roccbox, turn the knob in the back which releases and ignites the gas. The first time you use the oven, you're supposed to run it on low heat for half an hour to let it cure. After that, I cranked it up to high, which took about 35 minutes to go from 300 degrees Fahrenheit to 930.

From there, I was ready to start slinging pizzas.

What makes the Roccbox stand out

Per the True Neapolitan Pizza Association requirements, a Neapolitan pizza must be cooked at temperatures between 806 and 896 degrees Fahrenheit. Your average home oven will likely only go up to 550 degrees. As a homemade pizza lover, I was excited at the possibility of making pizza like a true pizzaiolo.

Thanks to advice from Ken Forkish in his book "The Elements of Pizza," I knew I needed to adjust my pizza dough recipe to have less water. You see, when you cook pizza quickly, there's less time for the water to evaporate. I found that a water-to-dough ratio of about 58% was ideal (compared to 70% in a 550-degree oven). I mention this so you can plan accordingly.

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My first two pizzas only took 60 seconds to cook.

This sure beat the 10 minutes it usually takes using my oven and pizza steel. The one problem I encountered was that the part of the pizza closer to the heating element was much more done than the part closer to the mouth.

This was an easy fix. Using the included peel and some tongs, I rotated the pizza 180 degrees after 30 seconds and cooked it for another 30. This did the trick. Since the oven does not heat evenly, this step is necessary.

In my testing throughout the last two months, I used the oven every week, making more than 30 pizzas. I even hosted a party in which I also put Sargento's new cheeses to the test.

It took me an hour to make 12 pizzas from start to finish - that includes forming the dough and topping it - but each one cooked much quicker than that. My friends were floored with the results even though I was making some crazy creations that paid homage to my home state of Michigan, like dill pickle pizza, Coney Island hot dog pizza, and olive burger pizza to name a few. But the lightly charred crust was also a hit and only a few "pizza bones" ended up in the trash.

I also like the metal pizza peel that comes with the Roccbox. I previously only had a wood peel from Pizza Royal, which is great for putting pizzas into the oven, but the ultra-thin metal peel works better for moving pizzas around and removing them once cooked. I don't recommend using the metal peel to put the pizza in the oven - even with plenty of flour, the dough tends to stick.

Keep in mind though that any peel larger than 12 inches wide won't fit into the oven.

Since the oven gets so hot, cleaning is pretty effortless. There were times when some of the toppings slid off as I popped the uncooked pie into the oven and ended up burning up at the extreme temperatures. The only real cleaning you might want to do is brush the burner with a soft-bristled brush and wipe down the exterior with warm, soapy water.

Cons to consider

Williams Sonoma

There are a few cons with the Roccbox that I want to cover, but I don't consider any of them to be deal-breakers.

First of all, it's marketed as "portable." Sure, it's more portable than your typical full-sized oven, but at about 44 pounds plus the weight of your heating source, it's still fairly hefty.

I'm also bummed my 12-inch Le Creuset Cast Iron Skillet doesn't fit into the oven as the mouth is too narrow. I wanted to try making steak in there, and I didn't trust any of my other cookware to survive 930-degree temperatures. If you plan on buying the Roccbox and using it for things besides pizza, it might be worth picking up some smaller, durable cast-iron cookware.

The mouth of the oven also experiences significant discoloration at high temperatures and becomes quite black, though a rep for Roccbox told me that this is normal. It didn't affect performance, and I was able to wipe away the black resin.

The bottom line

Gozney

As a homemade pizza aficionado, having the Roccbox at my disposal has been amazing. It's become an integral part of my pizza-making repertoire.

Should you buy it?

At $700, the Roccbox isn't cheap.

However, if you use this pizza oven rather than ordering out, you may end up saving money in the long run. That said, I think you should consider buying this oven if you love making pizza and want to take your skills to the next level. It's also a great option for hosting pizza parties where guests can get creative with their own pies.

What are your alternatives?

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The Roccbox is the first of its kind that I've tested, but there's a growing number of portable pizza ovens you can use at home. Here are the pros and cons of three popular options:

Ooni Pro ($599): The Ooni Pro heats up to 930 degrees Fahrenheit and like the Roccbox, works with multiple fuel sources. It's big enough to fit 16-inch pizzas, but the larger size means it's heavier at around 68 pounds and potentially awkward to transport.

Ooni Koda ($299): The Ooni Koda also reaches high temperatures, and only weighs a little over 20 pounds so it's about half the weight of the Roccbox. At $300, this is a great affordable option if the Roccbox is too expensive - though you can only cook with gas.

Pizzacraft PizzaQue ($134.99): The PizzaQue only reaches 700 degrees Fahrenheit, though that's gets hotter than most standard ovens. It isn't insulated either so it can get hot, and pizzas will take six minutes to cook as opposed to 60 seconds with the Roccbox. It's a lightweight option at around 25 pounds, and low-cost alternative too at $135.

Overall, I think the Roccbox provides the best balance of portability, durability, and performance. If you're looking for an appliance that makes it easy for you to make high-quality pizzas at home, this is the oven I'd suggest to get.

Pros: Achieves temperatures up to 932 degrees, cooks pizzas in 60 seconds, easy to clean and use, comes with helpful accessories, one-year limited warranty

Cons: Expensive, heavy, only fits items 12 inches wide and smaller

Buy the Roccbox Pizza Oven from Williams Sonoma for $699.95

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