My role as Ideal Home's Kitchen Appliances Editor comes with some perks - the best yet might be the chance to write this Gozney Arc review.
It's not just the fact that I'm already a big fan of the best pizza ovens that made me keen to take the Arc for a spin, but also the fact that I'd written our first look at this oven and learned about all of the features that make it, in Gozney's words, 'the world's most advanced pizza oven'.
That's a bold claim, and as a lover of all things cooking and food and outdoor escapades, I couldn't have been more excited to see how the Arc measured up. Here's how I got on.
Gozney Arc product specs
- Fuel: Gas
- Hose: 120 cm
- Weight: 21.5 Kg
- Pizza size: 14 inch
- Preheat time: 30 minutes
- Oven external dimensions: Width 480mm (18.9") x Depth 564mm (22.2") x Height 342mm (13.5")
- Oven internal dimensions: Width 377mm (14.8”) x Depth 462mm (18.1”) x Height 173mm (6.8”)
- Warranty: 5 years if you buy direct from Gozney
First impressions and unboxing the Gozney Arc
I've tested an oven from this brand before, as detailed in my Gozney Roccbox review and found the experience of using that particular oven to be seamless, even when loading in wood pellets to the hopper on a winter's evening. The brand, named after Tom Gozney, is also based in Bournemouth, which happens to be my hometown, so the stars aligned for me to get my hands on this oven.
The Arc takes inspiration from the success of the Gozney Dome and compacts many of those elements down into this gas-powered oven. The Dome and the Arc have similar looks, but the Dome is dual-fuel. If you want to supersize your Arc, the Arc XL, which makes 16'' pizzas, is available for £699.99 from Gozney.
There are brand new elements to the Arc to impress with, including the arrival of controls that allow you to control the rolling flame to a minute degree, as well as a digital temperature gauge that lets you know exactly when to launch your pizza.
The Dome is a big, imposing oven, but the Arc is actually fairly small, whilst still having a huge cooking space for 14'' pizzas inside. It's a true tardis and simply looks phenomenal as well. The relaxed beige colour and fine details are all inch-perfect, and worlds apart from the look of more traditional, rustic at-home pizza ovens, like the Ooni Fyra. It definitely brings a new design edge to the world of mainstream outdoor cooking.
Unboxing the Arc was a piece of cake. The top of the box is lifted off to reveal the instruction manual and the oven bundled in polystyrene. Lift this off and you'll find the Arc, which you can then manoeuver onto its stand, or a heatproof surface.
Gozney very kindly sent me the Arc stand, available for £249.99 from the Gozney website, which is a thing of beauty in its own right, with wooden wings on either side for serving or to host your pizza peel. It's just the perfect height for getting the pizzas in and out, and the Arc screwed on to the top in a second. This is a two-person job though, so any solo pizzaolos out there might need to rethink the initial assembly.
The Arc itself is pretty much good to go from the minute you get it out of the box. All I needed to do was add on the flute outlet at the top, attach the gas canister and pop in the batteries for the temperature gauge and the gas ignitor.
The design of the Arc stand means that you don't have to worry about stray hoses or where to put your canister, as there's a tray at the bottom for both. As far as pizza stand ideas go, this particular one has everything covered. It's also equipped with wheels on each leg, which means you can whizz it around your patio to wherever you like.
Once set up, you can peer inside the Arc and see just how much space there is for cooking. There's no door, but the cavernous design of the Arc, according to the brand, means that heat will stay inside anyway.
To the right you'll find the gas control dial and in the centre is your digital thermometer, which tells you where on the scale of optimal-pizza-making-temperature you are currently sitting. As well as being super practical, it's a thing of beauty!
The last step to getting started with this oven is to undertake its first firing. This is when you let it burn it a medium to low flame for 30 minutes to help cure the oven. It's something you'll only need to do once.
Then, all I needed to do was ignite the oven and let it get up to temperature. The LED temperature gauge is genius, and I love that you can switch from Celsius to Fahrenheit so easily using it. It makes getting the pizza oven ready a hands-free operation - so I went into the kitchen to prep the dough while the oven got up to speed.
Making pizza with the Gozney Arc
Different levels of involvement come with owning a pizza oven - if you want a more relaxed experience you can always pick up premade dough, or even order it from the Gozney website to arrive with your oven, so you can get going straightaway.
While that method is foolproof, I love getting stuck in and making pizza dough. I've tried a few recipes now, but I always come back to Gozney's overnight dough recipe for properly puffed-up crusts.
So, once my dough was kneaded and separated and ready, I fired up the Arc, which I found took around 30 minutes to get to the optimal temperature. That gave me plenty of time to sort out my toppings and stretch my dough out. I still haven't mastered the art of making a perfectly round pizza, even after testing a few ovens now, but I'm getting a little better.
Gozney kindly kitted me out good and proper with a placement peel (£75.00), turning peel (£69.99), a pizza cutter (£40.00) and a serving platter (£39.00). Every single one of these items was supremely helpful, and made my pizza party run much more smoothly. The only downside is that the cost of the whole shebang is bound to add up pretty quickly, and the cost of the oven in the first place is not insignificant.
First up on the stone, using all of my Gozney gear, was a garlic pizza bread. Something I learnt from our ever-wise expert Helen McCue in her feature on getting the most from a pizza oven was to use semolina to dust my pizza peel before popping my dough on. It means that the pizza moves off of the peel with ease.
The first pizza, much like pancake counterparts, always needs a little work, but the taste of this garlic bread was divine, despite the slight burning. Sliding the dough off the peel onto the oven was easy, and from there, I had a go with the rolling flame controls, which is when the charring incident happened. Undeterred, I set off with my next pizza, topped with salami.
The heavier your pizza gets as you weigh it down with toppings, the trickier the base will be to manoeuvre, so keep the extravagance low if you're just starting out. This particular pizza wasn't too heavy, and as soon as it was in the Arc, the crust puffed up gloriously.
I turned this pizza once halfway through the cooking process, which takes mere minutes, and the results were glorious. Even better, despite now being on my second pizza, the heat of the Arc hadn't dipped at all, so it was instantly ready to go for my next pizza, which was loaded up with mushrooms, olives and ham.
All in all I cooked six pizzas in quick succession with the Arc, and each was as delectable as the one before, with no need to wait until I fired in the next one. It was so easy to turn the pizzas inside the cavern with the help of the smaller turning peel, and the side tables made serving up easy too.
Seeing as the oven was still hot even after our pizzas, I also added a few vegetable and halloumi skewers to the oven, which charred deliciously. Experiments like this show there's much more you cook do with a pizza oven than you might think!
Cleaning the Gozney Arc
The secret to cleaning a pizza stone? Use the heat of the oven itself by gradually heating up the stone next time you want to cook with it, and burn off any excess from the last round before you start again.
This is certainly my method at least, and the fact that Gozney sanctions it makes me feel better - the official advice from the brand is this: 'To clean the stone, we would recommend leaving this on full flame for 60 minutes which will then burn off any residue on the stone.'
With an oven this beautiful, you'll want to keep it looking pristine, and wiping the external parts of the oven with a wet cloth will do that job just fine. I then bundle my Arc up in its lovely cover (£49.99 from Gozney) and leave it outdoors on its stand.
How does the Gozney Arc compare to predecessors and competitors?
The Arc is expensive yes, but it offers unrivalled access to a straightforward pizza making experience at home, and can add a whole new social zone to your garden too. If you'd prefer something portable, a little less expensive, or if you'd prefer a wood burning option, the Gozney Roccbox may be the one for you instead, but I do feel the Arc is a better long term option for a garden.
Alternatively, if you want a garden buy that's somehow even easier to set up, then the electric Ninja Woodfire Oven may appeal. It has a tonne of functions packed in, but our expert reviewer said that she'd buy it for the pizza oven capability alone.
If budget is your main concern, then you can't go wrong with the wood-fired Ooni Fyra, which we gave five stars in our review. You can usually get it on sale for around the £250 mark.
Should you buy the Gozney Arc pizza oven?
The only thing I don't love about the Gozney Arc is the price because, at £599, it is a mountain to climb if you're on a budget. Despite the massive price tag, I've still been showing everyone I can just how gorgeous this oven is, and I can't wait to try more pizzas in it this summer.
It's quite simply a dream to set up, and means you can focus on the fun part of a pizza party rather than worrying about feeding your oven with more wood pellets.
I was worried I'd lose that woodfired taste that I loved when I tested the Woody Pizza Oven, but the rolling flame element means that you can still get the same look to your pizzas, even if it's missing the authentic flavour. If the only thing I can complain about here is the price, it's fair to say that Gozney has cracked it with the Arc. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.
