Everyone loves a good homemade pizza – made and cooked to just how you like it. Some like it so much that they install their own wood-fired pizza oven in their backyard. I love homemade pizza, but not that much. I’m more of a convenience and value-for-money sort of person.
This is where the My Pizzeria pizza oven from Kenwood comes in. The My Pizzeria pizza oven is a compact pizza oven that fits in your kitchen drawer or cupboard. Surely something so small would not be able to cook a decent pizza, right?
Well, it cooks the pizza on a removable stone base, it can reach a temperature of up to 400°C, enabling a pizza to be cooked in just three minutes, has a timer so you don’t accidentally leave the pizza in for too long and a window so you can keep an eye on the pizza without opening the lid and letting all the heat out.
The My Pizzeria pizza oven from Kenwood is currently priced at an affordable AU$149, although I have also seen it priced at over $249 so get in fast if you want the $149 price (Kenwood or JB Hi-Fi at this stage)!
Design
The My Pizzeria pizza oven comes in a stylish Storm Blue colour, making it a great-looking kitchen appliance you can leave out without ruining the kitchen’s decor. This pizza oven though, is designed to be stored away in a cupboard or drawer and taken out when needed, we don’t eat pizza every day.
Behind the back of the lid are two knobs, one is a timer and the other a temperature gauge. Always set the timer – I was making a dessert pizza and nearly burned it because I wasn’t paying attention.
The top of the pizza oven has a window that you can view the cooking pizza through and determine just when it is cooked perfectly on top. When I tested it out I noticed the top was cooked before the bottom was sufficiently crispy so I just opened the lid and let the bottom continue to crisp up.
Making the pizza
The pizza oven comes with two “pizza peels” to help lift your pizza onto the stone cooking base and to remove it without burning yourself or ruining your pizza.
Using the oven is super simple – pre-heat it for ten minutes or so, place the pizza on the cooking stone, put the lid down, set the timer and off you go. Check it every few minutes because it does cook exceptionally quick.
Exceptionally quick does not mean that the pizza is not good quality – far from it. I made possibly the best homemade pizza I have ever had thanks to the cooking stone and the heating element on top. The top was cooked exceptionally well, with the cheese melted just right and the bottom was just the right amount of crispy, without being burned.
Now, a standard meat lovers and a supreme pizza were not enough for the review. The Grand Final was on, and you need some kind of dessert to eat while watching, so I made my first-ever dessert pizza – a s’mores pizza. Very American, I know, but it was amazingly good.
Start with a small pizza base, drizzle a small amount of olive oil on it, sprinkle some dark chocolate on top, add some small marshmallows, and finally sprinkle some crushed digestive biscuits on top. Yum, is not a good enough word to describe that. So good, and it showed the flexibility of the My Pizzeria pizza oven.
My Pizzeria can be used to cook more than just pizza, whether homemade, chilled or frozen, with it also capable of making flatbreads, quesadillas and more. They are a bit beyond the scope of this review and its timetable but the option is there if this is something you wish to pursue.
Cleanup and storage
Once the pizza oven was cool, I simply wiped the stone with a wet cloth to remove the crumbs and spilled chocolate and it was good to put away. It then went onto the pantry shelf to be used again next week or whenever the hankering arises.
Conclusion – Every home needs one
Fairly simple conclusion here. At a sub-$150 price it is a must-buy. You’ll make your money back by saving on takeaway pizzas and I dare say the pizzas you’ll make at home will be healthier than those from a pizza store. Even at $200 it’s great value. If you are a pizza lover and also love to make your own at home then you really need to buy this.
I love it. It’s powerful, compact and can fit in your cupboard or drawer in the kitchen and, most importantly, it cooks a mean pizza!
The Kenwood My Pizzeria pizza oven is available now from Kenwood and your local appliance store. Some stores currently have it for $149, so if you want this, get in quick before the price rises!
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
