Gozney is a British company that designs and manufactures pizza ovens for home and professional use. Tom Gozney is not only the CEO, but also the designer of the pizza ovens they create, something he learned after being inspired to create a better way to cook pizza.
Since starting back in 2009, Gozney has grown to now sell products in more than 50 countries around the world.
Gozney, the company expanded its product line to include a variety of ovens, including the Dome, a dual-fuel oven that can be powered by wood or gas.
The Gozney Roccbox is a portable, wood or gas-fired oven that features a stone floor, and a design that allows the flame to flow over the top of the pizza to cook it in just minutes.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to experience the Roccbox for myself and after the unboxing in early June, it’s time to break it down in a full review.
Design
The Roccbox is portable, so it’s possible to lift it, but it’s certainly not light, as it is constructed of strong materials. Roccbox is made up of premium-quality components including Stainless Steel (Grade 304), Cordierite Stone, Calcium Silicate Board, Insulation Wool and High Heat Silicone.
Some of that weight comes from the stone within. This stone is critical to the cooking process. This gets heated by the flame and cooks the bottom of the pizza, while the direct flame will easily cook your pizza topping and make the cheese.
When I opened the box, I wasn’t sure how I’d even remove it from the box, but Gozney thoughtfully designed a velcro strap that acts as a handle to remove it safely. The Roccbox oven (unpackaged) weighs just under 20kg. The Roccbox package as delivered (with burner, pizza peel, hopper tool and user manual) weighs in at 24kg.
From the time you unbox this, you are greeted by the bright yellow, limited edition exterior which is a real statement to make, if you decided to opt for this colour. It will certainly be a conversation starter, something to discuss as you wait for the pizza to cook.
For those with less bold colour tastes, the Roccbox is also offered in Grey or Black, as well as an Olive green. If I had the choice, I think I’d opt for the black, it looks stealthy and is likely less prone to getting dirty over time.
It turns out that the exterior isn’t just to gain attention, but the exterior surface actually acts as a giant protection layer from the dramatic heat inside. This means should someone accidentally touch the oven, they won’t be hurt, but it is important to stay away from the metal components that don’t have protection on them.
The idea of the portability is that you’ll take this with you on adventures like camping. While I might do that occasionally, the vast amount of use I’ll give this product will be at home, in our alfresco. This means the design of the built-in stand is really important. The three legs are a 2-stage system that extends to elevate the oven high enough to allow the gas (or wood) heat source to clear the table below.
Performance
Cooking a pizza is simply a process of making (or buying, but probably making) your pizza, turning on the gas bottle, turning on the igniter on the back of the oven and letting the flame do the work. You’ll want to want a little to allow the heat inside to grow, heating up the stone to make sure that the base is nice and crispy.
As you push your pizza into the oven, you’ll want to watch it carefully, as this thing cooks fast. This means it’s not a time to go grab a drink or start a conversation because if you get distracted, your pizza will burn. You do have control over this heat level, and ultimately the cooking speed, by adjusting the gas dial at the back of the Roccbox.
As I cooked the first couple of pizzas (one at a time), I learned a lot about the process, including the need to rotate the pizza to ensure an even distribution of heat over the pizza surface to ensure the crust ends up golden brown and crispy and everything is cooked adequately.
The Short Turning Peel was great for this, allowing a large enough surface area to confidently pick up your pizza while being small enough to maneuver inside the envelope of the Roccbox opening. One thing you do need to watch out for is accidentally pushing the pizza too deep into the oven and into the flame, this won’t end well and I’m surprised there’s not a lip at the back of the stone to prevent this from happening.
There are a couple of different techniques you can use to monitor the heat inside the oven. On the exterior of the oven, there’s an analogue temperature gauge, but the Roccbox comes with a Rozney Digital Thermometer which I certainly preferred.
The digital thermometer is incredibly easy to use, just point and shoot to get the temperature readout on the LCD display. This is useful if you need to check and confirm that your desired temperature has been reached before inserting the pizza. Having a digital option is great, the measurement is instant, while the analog option is there, it’s slower to respond and harder to get a precise reading.
Despite the internal temperature reaching close to 500 degrees Celsius, I could touch the exterior, which was just 30 degrees, a testament to the design and engineering of the insulation.
After 1-2 minutes, the pizza is cooked and you remove it with the peel. It is then transferred to the generous 14″ serving plate, which looks and feels premium. It’s now time to cut the pizza into slices for serving. This is where the Pizza Rocker comes into play.
We’ve all probably got a cheap circular pizza cutter in the drawer, but after using this Pizza rocker, I’ll never use that again. This thing is amazing and if you’ve ever watched pizza’s been cut in a commercial space, you’ll understand why they use a tool like this. The wooden handle provides great leverage to control the 13″ blade and you simply rock it left to right and even the most generous pizza is sliced all the way through, the first time, every time. If you get good at this, you can have the pizza sliced into 6 pieces in just a few seconds.
Features
There are a lot of great features about the Rozney Roccbox.
- Patented rolling flame technology: The innovative technology recreates a traditional yellow rolling flame, allowing you to experience wood-fired flavours regardless of the fuel used. The high, domed lid shape also means that flames are further away from your food. The Roccbox will consistently cook your pizza toppings to perfection because there are no strip burners or harsh gas flames that can burn your toppings.
- Ultra-thick microporous stone floor: The 19mm thick stone floor absorbs heat and holds it for unrivalled heat retention, cooking your pizza from the bottom up. Its microporous composition also withdraws moisture from the dough as it bakes, making your pizza base extra crispy.
- Super-efficient insulation: Thick layers of insulation between the inner shell and outer casing allow the Roccbox to reach up to 500°C and retain heat for longer, so you can continue cooking pizzas, one after the other, without dropping the quality or waiting for the oven to heat back up.
- Built-in thermometer: Check the temperature at a glance, so you’ll never have to guess when your food is ready.
- Yellow Silicon SafeTouch jacket: This ensures wandering hands won’t get burned, making the Roccbox the perfect family-friendly garden gadget.
- Retractable legs: Easily adjustable and compact, making it easy to pack up and fit in the car ready for your next adventure.
- Free Placement Peel: an essential accessory for any pizza oven that enables you to take the pizza straight from plate to stone and back again. Included for free.
The dimensions of the product are, when the legs are extended are:
- 473mm/18.5″ tall
- 540mm/21.2″ deep
- 413mm/16.1″ wide
The oven opening (or mouth) may be important to some that have existing utensils or accessories.. this is 88mm tall and 300mm wide.
Issues
While Gozney offers a range of accessories, they don’t currently offer a dedicated stand for the Roccbox, something I’d love to see them consider. This should be resilient to the weather while extending the significant design effort that went into the oven. In an ideal world, Gozney would offer stands that featured coloured accents that match your choice of the oven.
During the review, I simply used the oven on our outdoor table and the legs rose the oven to a height that was comfortable to use it at, but I would love a permanent solution that’s on lockable wheels and deals with the 3-points of contact from the legs, or is engineered to retract the legs and leave room for the fuel-source canister below.
Maybe there’s also scope for a portable, foldable stand for when you do take this camping, as there are not always great places to put this on the ground. The stand should also accommodate the gas bottle and all the cooking accessories as well as places to put a pizza or two that are next in line to be cooked in the oven.
Gozney offers a $400 stand for their higher-end Dome Pizza Oven, but the lack of one for the Roccbox feels like an obvious oversight.
My final complaint is that I am seeing some discolouration of the Stainless Steel (Grade 304) front, right where the logo is. This was caused when I had the heat up high and the flames lept all the way from the back to the front, which is kind of the point. Perhaps this could be made thicker or a thin piece of stone could be positioned here inside the oven to prevent this from occuring.
Price & Availability
The Roccbox Yellow LE is retailing at $799 for the gas-only option that comes with a placement peel (valued at $119).
Gozney is also offering accessories for the Roccbox including a cover ($69), turning peel ($99) and Roccbox Wood Burner 2.0 ($199).
Australians can purchase their Roccbox and accessories by going to the Gozney website.
Overall
The Gozney Roccbox is a portable, wood or gas-fired oven that features a stone floor and a design that allows the flame to flow over the top of the pizza to cook it in just minutes.
The Roccbox is also relatively easy to use, but I would love to see an all-electric offering added to the gas and wood options. With more electric vehicles offering Vehicle-to-load capabilities, this could really help the glamping crew become potential buyers and skip carting around a gas bottle, or sourcing firewood.
While not everything is perfect and the design won’t suit everyone, overall the Roccbox is a really compelling product and for something you’re likely to buy once and have it last many years, the price tag is appropriate for what’s on offer, appreciating that the included accessories make a portion of that sticker price.
Overall, the Gozney Roccbox is a great portable pizza oven that makes it easy to cook delicious pizzas at home or on the go. This pizza oven would be great for the occasional pizza party with friends, or in some mobile commercial offerings, taking just 1-2 minutes to cook each pizza.
