Presto Pizzazz Black Pizza Oven | 03430 Electric Kitchen Appliance

Posted on: Jan 10

Presto 03430 Pizzazz Black Pizza Oven I take my homemade pizza pretty seriously. The key is the crust. I like it thin and crisp, with just a hint of chewy goodness. And the key to getting crispy crust is blazing heat.

This contraption promises a pizzeria-style crust. Don't believe it. I guess it just makes good sense that a turntable and heat lamp doesn't produce an amazing pizza. People have been making pizza for centuries without this contraption, after all. It claims to make pizza in half the time, but I typically use a pizza stone and crank the oven up to 450 or even 500 degrees. So I get fantastic pizza fast -- with the crispiest crust imaginable -- and this pizza "warmer" just can't replicate that.

You can adjust it to cook the pizza more on top to really crisp your toppings, but can't you also do that with an oven? I believe it's called the broiler. Again, not a lot of incremental value here that you don't already get with your conventional oven.

Most of the pizzas I've made with this pizza oven have been soggy in the middle. I've read about people getting great results, but many of them appear to be using frozen pizzas. The description does say "Freezer to perfect in minutes with no preheating" so perhaps I'm just not the target audience. I bet there are frozen pizza devotees who would swoon over this product. Don't fall under the spell of this pizza oven. There is no pizzazz here. Just mediocre pizza.

Check out an inexpensive pizza stone that we reviewed recently instead, and crank that oven temperature up.