Breville, as a company, has made going the extra mile a product design standard. Recent examples include a blade juicer that somehow manages to avoid overheating the juice it creates and its excellent, SCA-certified coffee maker that elected to create a new, more efficient, more precise method to heating water instead of doing what everyone else did (the water is heated on its way to the coffee as opposed to heating the entire water tank, which uses less power and is capable of quick changes in temperature if wanted). Yesterday, Breville unveiled the latest in its efforts to better the home kitchen — the Pizzaiolo.
The gist: standard home ovens are not equipped to cook a pizza properly. To generate heat, your home oven heats up to a point, shuts off, then reheats back up when the temperature begins to fall (a problem made worse for pizza given its high temperature, low time cooking requirements). It also doesn’t utilize the holy trinity of heat types — convective, conductive and radiant — as most ovens don’t support radiation-based cooking (like a microwave does).
The Pizzaiolo is countertop-sized (though, frankly, not that small), harnesses the three heat types (conduction comes from the pizza’s contact with the baking stone) and does so at temperatures up to 750 degrees. This combination of temperature levels and heat transfer traits is not a first — it’s the same combination found in wood ovens. It is a first in something this compact, and for less under $1,000 (most legit pizza ovens run upwards of $20,000, according to Breville).
Knobs allow you to adjust the oven’s cook style based on the style of pizza you’re preparing, and Breville’s Element IQ System, which essentially identifies where power should be directed to for the best final product, handles the rest. A Neopolitan-style pizza should take about 2 minutes start to finish, according to the brand.
Breville’s Pizzaiolo will be available this month for $800 on Breville’s website.
