Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven

This review is for the Camp Chef Artisan Pizza Oven 14" PZ60.First, this is a great pizza oven, but it has caveats and I will explain what they are and walk through the process I use.This oven heats up great, and has decent even heat, and pumps out the heat through the mouth. You could do much worse. However, my Camp Chef Yukon camp stove should seriously have an igniter instead of having to use a stick lighter.I have been using these types of pizza ovens for about a year and have cooked off well over 240 pizzas, usually 8 12 inch pizzas per use.I have discovered a flame over the top really melts and cures the top of a pizza. This is something that the PZ60 lacks. So it takes extra time for the top to get the tops done when cooking two 12" pizzas at a time. But, cooking one pizza in the center actually works well (more about that below).The flame is on the bottom of the stone, so this cures a issue that the top flame ovens have. That problem is that the stones don’t stay hot while the pizza sits between the flame and the stone (cooling the stone quickly). With the below the stone flame that stone stays hot all the time. Additionally, the heat rises from both sides the oven. Stones do not stay hot in a top flame oven when cooking a pizza if it does not have direct heat. The adds to delay of waiting for the stone to heat back up (depending on how you like your crust). I like my crust darker with leopards spots (also referred to as charring, dark spots on the bottom of the pizza, some people consider burnt, but it is on point with what you see with Teriyaki chicken).That being said. The flames coming from the bottom of this oven keep the stone hot, so you do not need to wait to put another pizza in the oven after cooking the first one. This is an equal tradeoff (however, it is not a 60-second pizza) it takes about 3 minutes to cook a thin crust pizza on a pizza screen. However, top flame ovens take about 3 minutes to warm the stone back up.Cooking two pizzas at a time is a mixed bag. First, it takes longer for the tops to get done which means the bottoms are cooking much too fast. Moving to a screen (screens allow the heat to still flow through and sit flat, a pizza pan the same size as the pizza would force the sides up and not let the heat to flow through, however, would allow extra time for the top to complete cooking) for each pizza allows the bottom to cook slower to allow the top to cook more evenly (don’t let the dough sit for too long on a pan or screen as they will stick to either, even with flour or cornmeal). However, the top cooks too slow and the bottom still cooks too quickly. Additionally, when cooking two pizzas at a time, each pizza gets done quickly on the outer edges while the inner edges do not cook well. Playing with this and constantly rotating help but does not totally control the issue and again the tops don't cook fast enough.To get around the not cooking fast enough on top, I have simply gone to cooking one 12" pizza at a time in the center on a screen (since I don’t have to wait for the stone to warm back up, I can keep consistently pumping out the pizzas by the time the next one is ready to go in). This produces overall evenness, the dough bubbles, and the cheese and crust brown. Cooking on the sides does not allow enough time to brown the sides. Now, I will allow that other people may have different and varied experiences. However, I don’t want to constantly tweak, and I don’t expect most users to do so either. Most people will have similar results. A word, I am always looking to make the process better and the pizza more perfect, most people do not have this compulsion.I would imagine this oven would truly shine when it comes to cooking sheet pan style pizzas, and larger width items like Salmon on a plank and others. This would be quite amazing.If you want to cook two pizzas at a time, buying the single pizza PZ30 would be the ticket. You can place two on the same footprint as the PZ60. Each PZ30 is around $135 each so that would be $270+ for the two ovens. Where the PZ60 is around $170 so it really depends on how many pizzas you cook at a time and how long you are willing to wait. I am used to 60-second pizza ovens and again, I am looking to cook the perfect pizza.Part of the reason this oven does not do 60-second pizzas is it has an open mouth with no door. All three Pizza ovens (PZ30, PZ60, and PZ90) do not have a front doors to keep in the heat while the pizza cooks, and adding one would drastically change cook times. Strangely enough, the Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven comes with a front lip and door, however, can only fit slightly under two 10 inch pizzas at a time, additionally, the unit is extremely limited to baking only. It is also Nearly $400 to do only one type of cooking. Camp Chef should seriously think about adding accessories like the lip and door for their PZ series pizza ovens.With all this said, cooking does depend on the thickness of the crust. I use very thin crusts and it cooks well on a screen and I move it off the screen for about 10 seconds at 750 degrees to finish the bottom. The PZ60 is probably at the upper middle end of the home pizza kitchen spectrum. However, without a lot of attention it is not going to produce a lot of perfect pizzas for the entire family to enjoy all at the same time. If you are cooking off more than 3 pizzas or as we do it 8 personal pizzas, you have to find a way to cut time so everyone can eat a hot pizza at the same time. This is why I am opting for two PZ30’s in place of the PZ60.I hope this helps you in your decisions with the Camp Chef. I am purchasing two of the PZ30's today to replace my PZ60 and hopefully, I have better results and will post my review on those ovens.

Fits my campchief stove perfectly. Use flower or cornmeal to prevent the pizza from sticking to the pizza stone. Does not get very hot if the wind is blowing at all. I would buy it again.

This is a fairly bulky and heavy addition to the Camp Chef line. Before I used it I added metal chest handles to both sides of the pizza oven to facilitate lifting it on and off the burners more easily and for storage. I've made about 10 pizzas and I'm still learning to cook pizza on it, consequently I got a lot of burnt crust built up on the stone I needed to scrape off. I will probably make a different setup that will allow removal of the stone easier than the four little screws and two brackets that hold it in place so that I can more easily remove the stone to clean off the burnt crud. There are several vent holes below the stone, and a separate metal liner inside the top for even heat distribution. The company this was bought from may be a division of Camp Chef as the address is near the Camp Chef home address, however the price was less than from Camp Chef directly.We had a pizza party with about 20 people and found that having pizza pans made the baking process easier and cleaner than putting the dough directly onto the stone. URL for pans, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09K3PW17J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1Someone asked if it has diffuser plates on the bottom. I have attached picture showing the bottom of a Griddle Top, showing a diffuser plate. I have attached pictures of the bottom of the pizza oven. It doesn't have a diffuser plate, it has vents. As mentioned in a previous review, I made a mod to mine putting chest handles on both sides that makes it much easier to move around, pictures attached. If you do this be careful drilling holes as this oven has some type or porcelain or enamel finish where I drilled the handle screw holes.

It fits perfectly over my camp chef stove. The oven at the hottest was 530* for testing it out. I cooked at 350 and it was perfect. Pizza, open face sandwiches and a cake! Wonderful for the campsite.

Cooks like best pizza ever