500C barbecue-beater that can cook your pizza in 90 seconds!
IT can rustle up everything a barbecue can – without the endless wait for the charcoal to heat up.
But as well as sausages, hamburgers and kebabs, this portable oven can also cook a stone-baked pizza. And in less time than it takes to make toast.
The creators, who have been working on the design for three years, say the Roccbox, as it is called, will remove all the frustrations of the traditional barbecue. It is ready to use in just 15 minutes and can bake a crisp 12-inch pizza in 90 seconds, as well as roasting meat, fish and vegetables, and baking crusty bread.
According to the makers, the old problem that arises with traditional barbecues of meat being burnt to a crisp on the outside yet raw i n the middle won’t happen with the Roccbox.
It blazes to a fiery 500C in just 15 minutes fuelled by either wood or gas, and is thought to cut cooking time by up to a third. Sausages and steaks should take about five minutes.
The oven burns through a small bag of kindling every hour or so and its gas burner uses normal propane or patio gas bottles.
A burner at the back of the oven creates a flame which rolls across the top, cooking the surface of the food. A flat stone base across the bottom of the cooking area crisps the food from underneath. Despite the roaring temperatures inside, the oven isn’t dangerously hot on the outside.
It is covered in multiple steel layers with an insulated jacket and outer sleeve. The makers say that once it has heated up to working temperature, it produces very little smoke.
It weighs a fairly hefty 20kg and so is not really suitable for carrying any great distance, but at 45cm high and 40cm across – and with handy folding legs – it fits into a car boot for taking to picnics or camping.
Roccbox’s founder and chief executive Tom Gozney said: ‘Anything a barbecue can do a Roccbox can do. It’s more than perfect for pizza, but it can also bake light and fluffy bread, caramelise roasted vegetables, roast tender joints of meat and create the perfect crispy fish skin. It has taken over three years of development and engineering.’
The oven, which is made in China, goes on sale today on the Indiegogo website for £299 (€380). This will increase to £399 (€508) after the first 250 are sold.