Tried and tested: The Gozney Roccbox pizza oven

I've only met one family with a pizza oven. It was built into their backyard, on a property surrounded by acres of land. This is to say I'd never really considered a pizza oven as something for my life, i.e. living in an apartment in Sydney, despite being a pizza lover who frequently orders it when eating out.

But I guess I'd never looked into it properly. There are plenty of pizza ovens on the market that promise restaurant-quality pies made in the comfort of your own home.

I was given the opportunity to play with the Gozney Roccbox, an oven described by the brand as a "scaled down and portable version of our commercial pizza ovens". It sounded perfect, size-wise. It was time to find out if it ticked all the other boxes.

Buy the Gozney Roccbox here!

Setting it up

Even though I live in an apartment we decided to christen the pizza oven at my parents' place, where the pies would be prepped and enjoyed by more than two people.

My dad and husband set up the Roccbox on my parents' verandah. My dad admitted he thought the oven would be bigger than it was, based on the size of the box it arrived in, but once it was out it was quite compact – which makes sense, given Roccbox.

The setup was pretty straightforward. The Roccbox didn't require any assembling and just needed to be securely connected to the gas bottle. Then they turned it on to let it cure for at least 30 minutes, which is advised when using the pizza oven for the first time. While the Roccbox has legs, it still needs to be placed on something higher, unless you want to cook pizzas while squatting.

Then it was a matter of waiting for the Roccbox to hit the perfect temperature for cooking – Gozney's recommendation (from their cookbook) varies depending on the pizza but on average it's about 450 degrees Celsius, which took about 30 minutes.

Some superficial notes: my sister said, "I like the aesthetic. It's matte and sleek, it looks very modern." A good thing about the dark colourway means any singeing from the oven won't be noticeable.

Cooking the pizzas

This is where we got a little stuck (pardon the pun). In our excitement, we loaded up the first pizza with homemade tomato sauce, mushroom, eggplant, sundried tomato, red onion and different kinds of mozzarella. We made the pizza directly on the peel but forgot to flour it.

You can imagine what happened next. We couldn't get the pizza off the peel and into the oven. After watching a few videos we tried to position the peel in the recommended angle but it resulted in some of the toppings flying off. We eventually got the pizza off with patience, determination and multiple spatulas.

As with many things, practice (and generously flouring the peel) makes… better. We weren't exactly nailing it, but by the third pizza we were in a better rhythm. We also exercised restraint and tried to ease up on the toppings, but it's hard to not get over-excited.

Once they were in the oven the pizzas took about two minutes to cook, with turning required every 30 seconds or so. The Roccbox can fit pizzas up to 12 inches in diameter, which makes them easier to manage.

There is something soothing about watching pizza cook, an experience you're usually denied when you order at a restaurant. But you have to balance your enjoyment of watching the dough bubble up and the cheese melt with turning the pizza to avoid burnt bits.

The other part of the process that took us a while to master was the production line. With the peel in use, we would try topping pizzas on baking paper and transferring them later, but the end result was messy. Our most successful pies have been topped on the peel before transfer.

Gozney offers over 40 accessories to take your pizza-making experience to the next level. The essentials for us are the Venture Placement Peel (for getting the pizzas into the oven) and the Utility Turning Peel (for turning the pizzas) – we were able to make do with what we had for other items like a pizza cutter and boards. The Roccbox Cover is also handy for easy storage.

WIN! A Gozney Tread pizza oven could be yours. Enter our comp for your chance to win!

Enjoying the experience

The pizza oven was fired up a few times over the summer and every occasion was a hit. When loosely polled, 100 per cent of people who cooked with the pizza oven said they preferred the flavour, texture and overall experience of eating the pizzas compared to a normal oven.

It still feels like there needs to be an event of sorts to make it worth turning on, but there's nothing quite like the novelty of new guests coming over to have a go for the first time.

When my sisters recently hosted a pizza party for their birthday, one of their friends said it confirmed his desire to own an oven.

A pizza oven can feel like an extravagance, like something 'extra' you buy when you're settled in life and have absolutely everything else needed for cooking. But if you enjoy entertaining and have enough space to store it, it's worth the investment.

If you don't have the funds to drop on a pizza oven at this moment, you could start planting hints with loved ones. In one of my favourite podcasts-turned-newsletters, Highly Enthused, the hosts discussed how one of their partners had received a pizza oven as a big group present for his 40th. It's a solid and generous gift idea.

How do you know if the Roccbox is right for you?

Gozney currently offers six kinds of pizza ovens.

The Roccbox is the smallest, the most affordable and one of two the brand offers that's portable (at the time of writing they've just introduced the Tread for active lifestyles).

Read our review of the Gozney Tread here!

I liked the idea of the Roccbox for my lifestyle, not because I am the outdoorsy type who enjoys camping, but because I live in an apartment. So far we have only used it in my parents' backyard, but I like knowing that I can easily take it to my place for a pizza party, and that its size won't overwhelm our balcony. I'm looking forward to doing this over winter, when the oven can double as a heater.

The Gozney website also offers a handy comparison tool for anyone wondering which pizza oven is right for them.

Our writer was gifted the Gozney Roccbox for the purpose of this review.

WIN! A Gozney Tread pizza oven could be yours. Enter our comp for your chance to win!