PIZZA OVENS
Move over barbecue dad, lockdown has created a nation of back-garden pizzaiolos. A welcome side effect of all that bread baking last March meant that we had sourdough starter on tap – ready to turn into pizzas.
And with nowhere to celebrate but the back garden, we started buying pizza ovens to host our Rule of Six soirée. John Lewis and Lakeland both reported huge sales of pizza ovens last year, with the department store reporting a further increase this year already, with sales of the Ooni oven up by 115 per cent.
“Customers are getting their orders in early this year,” Charlotte Coles from the brand says. The Scottishowned family business Ooni
is popular because its ovens, which they claim are the first portable pizza ovens fired by wood pellets, fit in any size garden, from a balcony to a larger space. They produce professionalworthy pizzas, too, with an
oven that heats up to 500C and takes 60 seconds to cook a pizza – quick enough for even the hungriest teenagers. Ooni 3 was last year’s big hit, but its latest model, Ooni Fyra 12 Wood Pellet Pizza Oven, features a two-part chimney plus a pellet burner and hopper, which can be packed away and easily stored – or transported to a friend’s house for instant Italian summer vibes.