Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven Review (Pros + Cons)

Everyone enjoys pizza, so why not make your own at home? Whether you prefer deep-dish Chicago pies, thin-crust New York slices, or artisan-baked, wood-fired Italian styles with puffy, soft crusts, the newest home pizza ovens enable aspiring pizzaiolo to produce pizzas that are on par with or even better than those you’d find at most neighborhood pizzerias. Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven is one of the best ovens.

We created many pizzas for ten weeks to test nine top pizza ovens in electric, gas, wood/charcoal-burning, and multi-fuel configurations to determine the best models for any devoted home pizza baker. We gave the Ooni Koda 16 and Gozney Roccbox ovens higher ratings than the CampChef oven because they both cooked pizzas more quickly and allowed for more charring on the top of the pies exposed to cooking flames.

Pizza will always be in style, and I’m okay with that! Because they can bake pizza at far higher temperatures than standard home ovens up to 900 degrees lightweight, portable pizza ovens with insulated walls and a heat-absorbing stone have transformed how people bake pizza at home.

This enables the creation of a Neapolitan-style pie with a chewy, slightly scorched crust covered in melted cheese and crispy toppings. Pies are even better because they can be prepared quickly and are perfect for special family meals or entertainment.

I was debating whether it would be worthwhile to spend a lot of money on an outdoor tabletop oven such as the Camp Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven because I bake pizza every week, and I already had the routine down with my house oven. The decision was a resounding yes. Read on to get my complete thoughts.

Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven

Design

The Camp Italia Artisan Pizza Oven has a strong, stainless steel body and a beautiful, almost aerodynamic domed top. Thanks to the double-walled ceiling, its wide, short, rubberized feet form a robust base and give it a stout silhouette.

The style is modeled after (and resembles) a traditional brick oven. The oven’s removable, and the vented door allows heat to circulate inside. Users can bolt on 1-pound propane canisters or a 5-foot line to connect to a larger tank using a regulator in the oven’s back.

The burners run along the side of the unit and across the front under the cordierite sheet pan, resulting in a cooking surface that takes longer to heat up than the air inside the oven but subsequently becomes hotter. The gas flame valve is controlled by a large, red plastic knob on the front right of the oven, and a large, easy-to-read thermometer is inset into the top of the device.

Setup Simple

The setup process was simple, and I only required the diagram in the instruction manual. When I unboxed the oven, the burners and heat deflector were already there, but I still had to put the pizza stone, door, handle, shelf, thermometer, and gas line regulator in.

I experienced a few glitches but could identify the user’s mistakes. The ceramic pizza stone fits into the oven deck so snugly that, at first, I thought it was too big. But I persisted, and I got it in. I initially placed the handle on the wrong side of the door, but as soon as the oven couldn’t be closed off, I noticed my error.

I moved the oven outside once it was put together. The manufacturer advises keeping the oven 10 feet away from combustible buildings. I found a robust and non-flammable base for it to sit on that was high enough so I wouldn’t have to stoop down close to the ground (a metal patio table). For the pies and tools, a little side table was adequate. A wheeled stainless steel cart has been used successfully by other users.

Features Hot And Heavy

Even though the oven weighs 47 pounds when the stone is inside, it is still portable. Unless you are a vast and robust individual, it is tough to manage alone due to the unit’s width but not too heavy.

The oven warms up quickly thanks to the 17,000 BTU system, and a 12-inch pizza is cooked in just 3 minutes. On a frigid day, it took the oven only around 20 minutes to swiftly reach 650 degrees before increasing to 750 degrees. The heat was kept consistent by keeping the oven closed and the door in place.

The pizza stone’s substance, which is the same as that used in pottery kilns, retains heat well and, with a little effort, produces a crust that is crispy and slightly burnt. It was between 50 and 150 degrees warmer than the air inside the oven when I tested the stone with an infrared thermometer, which could lead to uneven cooking if safety measures weren’t taken.

The oven includes a culinary manual that offers usage instructions and several starter recipes for homemade dough, red and white sauces, and focaccia. Even more intriguingly, the brochure advises searching online for innovative ways to use the oven, such as calzones and salmon cooked on wood planks. 

Editors Rating

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Testing

Reaching and sustaining a high enough temperature to blister pies and thoroughly cook them was the Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven’s most complex challenge. The temperature would drop below 500 degrees after each pie was baked, so we would fasten the oven door and reheat for roughly 10 minutes between pies.

The oven’s instruction book states that thin-crust pies should be baked for four to seven minutes, but we discovered that seven minutes was the absolute least for most doughs. After seven minutes, homemade fresh pizza doughs rose out wonderfully, browning only a tiny bit not nearly as much as they had with other exposed-flame ovens.

Our frozen and chilled dough required almost 10 minutes to prepare, but the crust was still crunchy and not completely baked. The pies’ tops were prone to browning; to attempt and get a more melty, charred finish, we’d advise using a peel to keep the pies up close to the top of the oven.

Comparison

Of the ovens we evaluated, the Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven took the least amount of installation. The pizza oven door handle, shelf, and pizza stone were all inserted and put into the oven, and the thermometer was screwed into the top. This whole procedure took less than 20 minutes and had little technical expertise.

Another choice is the Ooni Karu multi-fuel type, which can run on wood, charcoal, and propane. Be cautioned that because pizzas cook so rapidly, the wood flavor doesn’t come through much, if at all, and the wood pieces need to be a particular, picky size.

The Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven has a countertop appliance vibe. Its body is entirely made of stainless steel, unlike some of the other models we tried, such as the Ooni Koda 16, and it has very short legs, giving it the appearance of a much larger toaster oven. The Camp Chef oven is less moveable than others and could need two sets of hands to carry and set up because of its hefty rectangular design and 47-pound weight.

Final Summary

Purchasing a Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven could take longer than the handbook to heat up and cook pizzas. The spacious cooking area and adaptability of the oven may appeal to those who like a more convenient cooking experience and wish to experiment with cooking other foods in their pizza oven. We suggest the Ooni or Roccbox for pizza beginners due to their more contemporary designs and simplicity of operation.

Frequently Asked Questions