Best Stone Pizza Oven For Your Kitchen

Traditional stone pizza ovens hold rich and impactful history in culinary preparation. These days, crafting authentic Italian pizzas using a traditional stone oven is still popular among chefs and restaurants.

Crispy and aromatic pizza is irresistible among pizza lovers, with the demand for stone baked pizzas rising higher than ever before. So, it is no surprise that businesses are looking for ways to implement this technique into their venue.

Despite the demand, why would you choose a stone pizza oven over a standard pizza oven?

Well, the answer is in the pizza itself. They say the key to the perfect Italian pizza is the perfect oven, and we totally agree.

When using a stone pizza oven, your pizza crust will be crispier, and your ingredients filled with more flavour. This is hard to achieve with standard pizza ovens you see in appliance stores today.

Did you know that cooking your pizza in a stone oven is generally faster than modern ovens?

A stone oven can attain extreme temperatures, meaning your pizza will be cooked in less than approximately 5 minutes, once entering the heat. Some businesses even go out of their way to install traditional stone ovens to reduce energy bills in their business. The cost of operating a woodfire or charcoal stone oven dramatically lessens due to the natural source of heat.

However, we know that not everyone is willing to invest in a traditional stone oven and be prepared to maintain the up-keep.

This is why there is a large selection of stone base alternatives available on the market today. No matter your business goals, there is bound to be a perfect oven match for you.

Below are popular stone pizza alternatives many use to achieve the same stone baked pizza results:

Masonry Oven

A Masonry oven is a baking chamber most commonly known for its handmade qualities – constructed using stone, clay, cob or bricks. This method comes close to ancient culinary techniques of cooking in a stone pizza oven. It’s dome chamber and porous material generates incredible amounts of heat and absorbs excess moisture – giving you a crispy pizza crust.

It is no wonder why businesses are implementing this into their venue – but at a cost!

Masonry ovens can be costly to your business if you don't use it daily. However, some justify the cost with the savings in electricity from the natural source of heating created using wood or charcoal.

Businesses who promote authenticity, implement Masonry styled ovens in their store-fronts to create an immersive customer experience. This allows customers to immerse themselves in the cooking of their food and provide a service to their senses.

Benefits:

• Available in universal shapes and sizes
• Ideal for Neapolitan pizzas with their extreme temperatures
• Retains a great amount of heat for cooking
• Can be powdered using wood or charcoal

Pizza Deck Oven

Pizza deck ovens are a universal solution and is available in all shapes and sizes. Differing from standard electrical ovens, the pizza deck oven uses a stone, brick or metal deck as a cooking plate. This offers a similar pizza result to traditional methods.

Benefits:

• Mimics the finish of a pizza cooked in a traditional stone oven
• Can be powered using electricity or gas
• Generally, less expensive to purchase and maintain
• Has more cooking capacity with levelled decks

Il Uno Artisan pizzas are compatible with a range of major electrical brands on the market. Contact us for more information.

Electrical Stone Pizza Oven

Electrical stone pizza ovens can provide the same authentic aroma and pizza finish as traditional stone ovens. Most electrical stone pizza ovens use electrical heating with a ceramic stone base. The stone base delivers the same heating temperatures found in traditional stone pizza ovens, without the need for wood and fire.

There are many benefits in utilising an electrical stone pizza oven for commercial use, specifically:

Electrical stone pizza ovens are a perfect solution for businesses big or small. When compared to other types of stone ovens, electrical stone pizza ovens will not break your bank.

There is a wide range of electrical stone pizza ovens in the current market with a low starting price range. Therefore, it is not difficult to find the perfect oven that fits your financial needs.

Operating an electrical stone pizza oven will lessen your long term costs. Easily reduce the cost of power, daily maintenance, up-keep materials, gas interlocking systems and ventilation with a simple solution; electricity.

Reliability
Electrical stone pizza ovens are reliable and can get the job done. There is no need to rely on external monitoring sources or buy additional materials to get it up and running. You have full control of how your machine will operate and the finish of your pizza.

Electrical stone pizza ovens are more readily available than most stone ovens. To maximise time, you are better off investing in this option, instead of hunting down a unique product. After all, this can double as a multi-use device if you also serve hot products like bread or pasta.

Staff training will also be a breeze as long as they can operate electrical appliances. This means you will spend less time training kitchen staff, and more time getting pizzas to your customers.

Commercial Stone Pizza Ovens by Il Uno Artisan

At Il Uno Artisan, we favour electrical stone pizza bases as it meets all our needs. But, what if there was an oven that did all the points above, plus more?

Well, that’s why we created our Il Uno Express Ovens. These ovens are fitted for commercial and non-commercial use throughout small to large businesses looking to meet pizza demands.

Fast cooking times

We know that businesses prefer to spend less time cooking and more time serving. Because, well, that’s what the customers want too.

The Il Uno Express Oven is designed with a ceramic stone base to deliver superior cooking times. The butterfly heating pipes enables consistent and even heat distribution to the ceramic oven stone and around the oven dome. This means that your pizza will be cooked evenly within just 5 minutes.

The Il Uno Express Ovens are appropriate for use in all commercial kitchens. Their compact size means that mobility around the kitchen is efficient – and can be stored away easily. This means your staff can maximise storage without interfering with their workspace.

We understand the importance of Health and Safety regulations in the workplace. So, we also offer Gluten Free stone pizza oven versions to avoid contamination in the kitchen (COMING SOON). With the significantly different labelling devices found on our ovens, businesses are able to avoid gluten contamination easily and effectively when used with our Il Uno Artisan Gluten Free Pizza Range.

We understand that committing to a new commercial kitchen appliance is a big risk, especially if it determines your product quality and sales. That is why we have implemented our Chef-less Kitchen Solution. When you purchase from our Il Uno Artisan Pizza Range, we will supply you with a free Il Uno Express Oven Kit* to help you start selling stone baked pizzas.

Implementing Your Own Pizza Stone

If purchasing new equipment isn't what you are after, you can easily implement your very own DIY pizza stone into your existing oven. Although the results will not be as amazing as an actual stone oven, you can ultimately achieve the same results if you invest enough time and energy.

This is a cheaper alternative for those who do not want to commit but are willing to experiment. While this method is not as effective as those designed for oven use, it comes pretty close. We don't recommend businesses using this method due to its lack of health and safety, productivity and overall cooking risks. However, it is perfect if you're trying to look at home!

Simply purchase a slab of stone, insert into your existing oven and place into your pizza on top to cook. There are a variety of types of pizza stones in the market that will help you achieve your desired stone baked pizza, so it may be worth experimenting to find your perfect match.

• Ceramic stone – Cost efficient, easy to maintain, high product longevity, & light in weight
• Cordierite stone – Can be used to cook many other foods, durable quality, resistant to thermal shock, more expensive option
• Clay – Highly mimics the internal finish of a Masonry oven, large variety of shapes and types
• Steel – May cause uneven heat distribution, can handle extreme temperatures, requires more product maintenance

Each alternative has their own benefits but will ultimately offer the heating temperatures you desire to cook a stone baked pizza.

We hope this helps you choose the perfect stone pizza oven for your business.

Find out more about our Artisan Pizza Kitchen Solution. *Minimum quantity applies. Terms and conditions apply.