Friday nights have always been pizza nights in our house, but the sizzling success of getting a Gozney Arc pizza oven has just taken things to the next level. Read on for our review of this must-have for pizza lovers.
When the kids were small, my husband would always pick them up from school on Fridays and come home to make quick and easy pizzas. Pita bread bases with no-fuss, choose-your-own toppings, followed by a movie to finish a busy week. Family bliss.
The kids are older now and we often entertain adults on Friday nights, so it follows that my husband has coveted a home pizza oven for some time. He’s been making his own dough for years, and our New York trip for my 40th birthday was punctuated by drop-ins to Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge, and visits to Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Lower Manhattan. These New York-style pizzas embody the fresh, simple nature of quality ingredients, blended with the enjoyment and shared experience of eating pizza with friends – something we’ve been yearning to replicate at home.
A home breadmaker from way back, my husband was frustrated with the shortcomings of pizza stones in the oven or on the BBQ – the heat was never intense enough to achieve a crispy crust without firing it quickly under intense heat, and it was impossible to achieve a flick of smokey char around the edges. Enter the Gozney Arc.
Gozney Arc review: The irresistible appeal of our own home pizza oven
- Our rating: (10 of 10)
- Why we rated it a (10/10):
Pros
- Gozney has produced a quality product, beautifully engineered from end-to-end – design, build and finish that creates crunchy, delicious pizzas in your own backyard.
- It’s a cheap night in. Since good pizza costs $25 each, this is a fabulous cost saving for the household – you can make 5 pizzas for the cost of a store-bought or restaurant pizza.
- It’s more beautiful than other leading brands! Its stylish silhouette has added a touch of wow factor to our alfresco space.
Cons
- The gas connection on the Gozney is the new version, so fitting to your LPG gas bottle may require a trip to your local Swap’n’Go outlet.
- Without the Gozney accessories, your pizza-making game will suffer.
- You’ll never have a Friday night to yourself again.
What’s so special about the Gozney Arc?
A lot of research has gone into creating the Gozney Arc, and we think they’ve nailed it. Gozney has thought of everything needed for an enjoyable experience of making outstanding pizza at home, from the compact design, efficiency of the gas burner and ergonomics of the tools (the pizza cutter alone is a triumph of object design). Invest in the accessories from the get-go and it all starts to make sense. If you love pizza, this will be both a lifestyle win and an economic saviour for your household. If you cook four pizzas at home with the Gozney Arc every week, you’ll pay off the cost of your pizza oven in just six months!
Gozney Arc materials and size
- Commercial-grade construction
- Gas-fuled propane creates rolling flame with consistent heat to 500ºC
- Stone base cooks crisp, crunchy pizzas in less than 2 minutes
- 2-layer insulation
- In-built digital thermometer
- Easy-to-use controls
- Booster or wheeled stand with winged platforms and covers all sold seperately
- Internal size allows up to 14″ (35cm) pizza
- External dimensions: W480 x D564 x H342mm
- Internal dimensions: W377 x D462 x H173mm
- Weight: 21.5kg
How to use Gozney Arc
We can’t recommend highly enough the Gozney online resources for training, tips, recipes and technique guidance. Watch all of the videos and the rest is just practice to make perfect pizza. The hardest thing is getting your pizza-forming skills up to scratch – the pizza oven does the rest of the work for you.
Don’t overload the topping! This is a rookie mistake that your kids can make on a store-bought pizza base, but if you’re making your own dough (and why wouldn’t you?), an overloaded pizza base will collapse under the weight of heavy toppings. It’s no fun scraping a soggy mess off the stone floor of your pizza oven.
Hot tip:
Once your base is formed and topped, press the two peels into action – a broad, flat placement peel, then the smaller turning peel to keep it constantly moving in a circular motion. In no time you’ll have the quintessential stance of a pizza chef – feeding a pie into the mouth of a flame-hot oven. The more times you do it, the better you’ll become and the more fun you’ll have!
Experiment with different pizza recipes and getting your temperature right so that you cook the base without burning it and the top is cooked properly. We found that if the base is fine but the toppings need a little extra cooking, using the turning peel to lift the pizza high in the oven and finish it off worked a treat.
8 top tips for perfecting your homemade pizza
- Make a double batch of dough and freeze half for next time, so you just have to defrost and go again.
- Mise en plus: have all your topping prepped and lined up in bowls ready to go – particularly if you’re feeding a number of people.
- Don’t overload your pizza toppings.
- Use semolina on your benchtop when stretching and forming your pizza base to avoid sticking and aid the placement from benchtop to peel.
- Keep your pizza moving – turn after just 30 seconds to avoid burnt sections and don’t stop until it’s all cooked.
- Keep lifting the base to achieve “leopard spotting” and avoid burning.
- Don’t walk away! It takes only 2 minutes to cook a pizza, so it needs your constant attention.
- Test as you go – the pizza chef always eats last!
Where to put a pizza oven in your backyard
Because it has no door, your pizza oven needs to be positioned where it will be protected from wind. A strong gust will blow out the flame and constant wind will make the temperature fluctuate.
Gozney gas fitting doesn’t work?
If your Gozney pizza oven doesn’t fit your gas bottle, check the connection fitting next to the regulator. The latest models have a different thread, but your local Swap’n’Go outlet should have both types and you can simply swap old for new.
What do the experts think about Gozney Arc?
Don’t get fooled into thinking you have to get the largest pizza oven money can buy. You can only cook one pizza at a time, and in the Arc it takes no more than two minutes, so this is all you can handle to keep the pizzas coming hot and heavy. We think the Gozney Arc is the perfect design for a home pizza oven, so unless you’re a professional pizza maker and you want to invest in the Dome, which is larger, more expensive (at $2,999) and allows for wood-fired cooking, we don’t see any reason to even go to the Arc XL. Larger pizzas are more difficult to manage while cooking. The Arc does the job brilliantly.
Overall, is Gozney Arc worth it?
Sì! È meraviglioso! Now, all you have to do is convince Chris Bianco to drop by and give you a few tips #chefstablepizzaedition
Where to buy Gozney pizza oven and accessories
Get the gear. Gozney makes beautiful accessories that you can’t do without. If you’re getting the oven, our advice is to invest in the entire pizza-making experience with the right tools. You’re playing with fire here, so you want a safe, seamless process that’s enjoyable.
- Gozney Arc, $1199.99
- Gozney Balance Placement Peel, $139.99
- Gozney Balance Turning Peel, $149.99
- Gozney Pizza Cutter, $74.99
- Gozney Pizza Rocker, $69.99
This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful and is republished here with permission.
