Is a pizza oven a good gift? Here's why you should factor one in to your Christmas list
Pizza ovens can be a huge investment. Do they make a worthy gift?
Pizza is a crowdpleaser. Owning a pizza oven is step above, and serves as a great way to bring poeple together in your home. But does a pizza oven make a good gift, or is it an investment too far to give to somebody else? They do, after all, require quite a bit of work.
As Ideal Home's product tester and compiler of our guide to the best pizza ovens I've tried lots of pizza ovens this year, and enjoyed some lovely moments with my friends and family while doing so. I can see why, if budget allows, that one of these outdoor ovens might make it onto your list of potential gift ideas for the foodies you have in your life.
I've rounded up the ovens that I think would make great gifts for people you might be trying to buy for, as well as the pros and cons of gifting a pizza oven altogether.
Does a pizza oven make a good gift?
Pizza ovens can make a garden into a more social space, and mean that you get access to restaurant-quality margherita whenever you like. Win-win. But the debate over whether they make a good gift is a little bite more complicated.
The first thing you'll want to consider is how keen a chef your potential recipient is. If they're the type of person who loves using one of the best BBQs in the summer, or they're already known to batch bake bread with the help of a stand mixer, then you can probably be pretty certain that they have the at-home-cooking-enthusiasm needed for a pizza oven.
If they aren't that keen on cooking, or on setting up and maintaining buys like a BBQ, then you might want to reevaluate whether they will be willing to put in the effort needed to succeed with a pizza oven. Oh, and being sure that they definitely like pizza will also help too.
Once you're sure a pizza oven is actually a good fit for them in terms of effort, you should think practically about whether they have the space for one. If their garden space is smaller, or if they share space with other people, you'll want to consider whether it's a viable purchase for them to use and store year-round.
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Another thing to consider is the type of fuel the oven you choose uses. Wood-fired ovens are more authentic, but take more effort to set up and run, while you can use gas ovens to churn out lots of pizzas at once, making them perfect for those who love to entertain. Below you can find suggestions for which type of pizza oven will suit each pizza-lover.
Gift to beginners
This is the perfect pizza oven starter kit. It has everything you need to get going and heats up quickly too. For under £250, the quality is fantastic too.
Our Woody Oven review has the full details of how it performed in our tests.
Gift to those without an outdoor space
This very clever oven can reach temperatures of up to 450 °C indoors in just 20 minutes. I've tried it in my flat and think it's a winner (but I will caveat that it is very, very expensive).
Gift to those who want a nice looking oven
This is a super stylish pizza oven that I'm currently testing out at home, and I think it would make an amazing gift for those looking to gift a nice-looking pizza oven to their loved one. It can be turned into a dual fuel oven, and will look fab in any garden.
Gifts for pizza oven obsessives
If the person you still need to buy for already has a pizza oven, and you're looking for accessories to add to their set up, then there are plenty of great add-ons that you can use to spruce up their stocking this Christmas.
Forget a pizza cutter, this pizza rocker is the tool you need for slicing up your fresh bakes and serving them. It's a versatile tool for cooking generally too, and razor sharp!
If you need a little more help on deciding which pizza oven to buy then our feature on which Ooni to buy may be of help to you as you sort out your Christmas list too.
Molly is Ideal Home’s Kitchen Appliances Editor, the Ideal Home Certified Expert on Appliances. An all-around cooking and baking enthusiast, she loves finding the next must-have product for readers that will their kitchen a better place. She joined the team in September 2022 after working on the editorial teams of Real Homes, Homes & Gardens and Livingetc.
For the last 4 years, she's been reviewing hundreds of small appliances; conducting tests at home or in the Ideal Home test kitchen. She would be hard-pressed to pick a Mastermind specialist subject but air fryers are her ultimate area of expertise, after testing just about every single one released since 2022.
To keep ahead of trends and new releases, Molly has visited the testing and development spaces of multiple kitchen brands including Ninja Kitchen and Le Creuset as well as attended consumer shows such as IFA, hosted in Berlin to see the cooking innovations of the future.
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