I am a true pizza fanatic, I own a 48" wood fired oven and use it to make true neapolitan pizza. As such, I have a fair bit of experience with "artisan" style pizza as well as many others.
I have had a camp chef EX280LW for two years now along with several of the accessories and have been happy with its performance. When I saw this oven pop up, I knew I had to have it.
I must admit that I was very skeptical, a lot of pizza oven claim to be able to make neapolitan style pizza but very few can live up to that claim. I was especially dubious of the design having a large open front as well as instructions that stated a proper cooking temperature of 600F way too cool for neapolitan pizza which I bake at 800-900F.
However, with a camping trip coming up, I went ahead and ordered one anyway. After the oven arrived, I was fairly pleased with the construction, including a large stone and a stainless "dome". It is not heavyweight and there is no insulation, so the oven is not exactly oozing in ultra high build quality. However, since it is designed for camping, I appreciate the cost effectiveness as well as the portable weight of the design. I may try to add insulation to the top of the dome as well as cover some of the front opening, but that is down the road.
For the camping trip, I prepped 24 8oz dough balls and brought loads of toppings to try. I went ahead and fired up the EX280LW at medium heat, it took a little bit to get the temps regulated but after about 20 min, I had it figured out. Out of my personal preference for high temperature pizza, I went ahead and fired the little oven almost as hot as I could get it. The stone floor temp was about 750F according to my IR thermometer and the dome was a little over 800F.
Overall, the event was a success, for some reason though, even though my temps were high, it took the pizzas about 3 min to bake, I hope to tweak my process and get those bake times down to 2min or less.
What I learned...
This oven is not a miracle worker, it will not replace my wood fired oven for any of my normal pizza needs, however, it is a very easy, convenient solution that allows excellent pizzas to be made on the campsite without transporting a heavy mobile oven or expending the money needed for such an investment. All in all, it performed nearly as well as I hoped, and better than expected.
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PROS:The PZ60 can fit two 10" -12"pizzas nicely.
It heats up quickly and the stone stays hot for some time afterward.
Easy to clean (doesn't really need to be cleaned as it seasons naturally)
Lightweight
Looks nice
Fair Price
Versatile (not just for pizzas)
CONS
Does not heat well in windy situations (like camping)
This isn't necessarily a con, but you need to cook at a much higher temp than is suggested in the manual. Plan on it.
Camp Chef needs to make a carrying case for this soon.
Doesn't have the nice smokey flavor like a real wood-fired oven, but you can use smoker box instead
Best Deals for Camp Chef Italia Pizza Oven PZ60
I love this oven... Had a football tailgate this past weekend for 30 people and we were cranking out pizzas like crazy, made 8 pizzas in about an hour or so. Can easily cook 2 pizzas at a time! Depending on the temp you set it at, the cook time ranges from 6 to 10 minutes and its pizzeria perfect! We also did garlic bread and french bread pizzas as well. Seems no limit to what can be done.We added a smoking tube with apple wood chips and now we have everything just like a wood-fired pizza oven including the smokey flavor!
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