Pizza enthusiasts will go to great lengths to make a good pie. And the Gozney Roccbox portable pizza oven definitely makes it a bit easier.
The quest for good pizza is a lifelong journey for some. But aside from perfecting the dough, sourcing the best tomatoes for sauce, and gathering fresh mozzarella cheese, home pizza makers are often left struggling to capture one thing that sets good pizza apart from just OK pizza: heat.
Some "hack(opens in a new tab)" their ovens to reach higher temperatures than 500°F. Others use a baking steel(opens in a new tab) — think a pizza stone made out of metal — to transfer that heat to the dough for the desired crispy crust. Those who are truly privileged or handy will build a whole pizza oven in their backyard. But if you can't do that and are looking to up your pizza game, a great place to start is the growing trend of portable pizza ovens.
Gozney's Roccbox is a small portable pizza(opens in a new tab) oven. It features a built-in thermometer and is enclosed in a "safe touch silicone jacket" to help keep you safe in the event you happen to touch the blazing hot oven. It's available in either green or grey, is equipped with three foldable legs, and looks pretty sleek. Clocking in at about 44 pounds, the oven can be moved via an included velcro strap and set up pretty much anywhere outside. The Roccbox setup is simple: Put the thing where you want to cook and hook up your heat source. Voila! You're ready to start making pizzas.
The Roccbox comes with two options for heat: A standard propane hookup that's included with the unit, or, for an extra $100(opens in a new tab), you can hook up a wood burner to get the "real" experience of cooking with fire.
Overall, my impressions of the Roccbox were really positive. It's extremely well built and will likely last for years. That said, it's also pretty heavy and expensive. It's easy to use, but as most pizza enthusiasts will tell you, there's a huge learning curve to making a good pie, especially if you're cooking pizza in the 800°F to 900°F range.
The Roccbox is engineered really well. I was even impressed with the shipping — whoever designed the packaging took extra effort to give a good first impression and make the heavy Roccbox easy to unbox. A large box complete with sturdy handles included a separate box with the oven, two burners, and peel. Formed styrofoam was limited, and there were no packing peanuts or any other annoying messes in unboxing. Once unpacked, there's virtually no setup, and that includes the heat sources. Simply twist the gas oven or wood oven onto the bottom of the unit, and you're ready to go.
But then you're going to have to wait.
Getting the oven to preheat, and more importantly, getting the pizza stone built into the Roccbox to a hot enough temperature, is not instant. And both fuel sources delivered different results, so I'm going to break down each of them separately.
Gas Burner
For most people, using gas to heat up the pizza oven is going to be enough. I found the oven got up to cooking temp in about 25 minutes, which is about what Gozney estimates(opens in a new tab). After hooking up the gas burner, tie in a propane tank (like one you would use on a grill), turn on the gas, and fire it up with the built-in ignition on the gas burner. I kept the gas blazing until my oven reached the temperature I desired (about 850°F), and turned it down a touch when I was actually cooking my pizza so the top didn't cook faster than the crust.
I found the gas easier to use than wood, and it yielded more consistent results. Additionally, it was just simpler. Using gas means less monitoring, no smoke in my eyes, and a slightly less involved cleanup process (more about that later). Also, getting the stone back up to temperature between pizzas was nearly instant. This is huge, considering that the Roccbox can only cook one 12-inch pizza at a time. From start to finish, the Roccbox can cook a pie in about 60 seconds if you give it enough time to heat up. Gas just makes the process a little bit easier.
Wood Burner
For an extra $100, you can also snag the Roccbox Wood Burner 2.0(opens in a new tab). The hookup is just as simple as with the gas burner — attach the burner to the bottom of the unit and turn it to lock it into place. Then things get a little more complicated.
Again, the design here is pretty genius, but you still need to build a small fire in the burner, maintain the embers and flame so that the oven gets really hot, and keep it going while you cook your pizza. In each test using the wood burner, it took me upwards of an hour to get up to a temperature that I wanted to cook at, but even then, it wasn't as hot as I would have liked. The first time I used the wood burner, I scorched one pie, ruined another, and eventually ate an OK pizza that had an undercooked bottom and a crispy top. It was still pretty good though, and these issues weren't necessarily the oven's fault, I just needed more practice.
Eventually I did manage to get some pretty good pizzas using the wood burner, but I found the process tedious, and ultimately I'm not sure it's really worth it. Diehard pizza enthusiasts may tell you that you NEED a wood fire to cook a real pizza. Whether you want to listen to those people is up to you, though.
See, to start and maintain a fire, you have to put small chunks of hardwood into a teeny tray that's only accessible via the back of the oven. It's really easy to burn yourself, and I found myself constantly reloading and checking in on the fire. I wish the chamber was a bit larger so it would be faster and easier to get the oven up to temp, but again, the oven is pretty small and portable, so expanding the burning chamber is practically impossible.
Gozney sells packs of wood specifically cut for the Roccbox on its website for $29(opens in a new tab), which should get you about six uses or more. It's important to note here that you can't just use any wood. You need to use a hardwood that will burn hot enough, but that's also cut into small enough slivers, chunks, or sticks. Just something to keep in mind.
The Wood Burner 2.0 is a better experience than cooking with pellets, though — a fuel method employed by other pizza ovens on the market, such as Ooni(opens in a new tab). While pizza ovens that offer pellet burners may deliver high temps with ease, if you really want that experience of cooking with wood, you need to actually cook with a fire you control. The 2.0 offers it, but at the cost of your time and attention.
What's in the box?
Included in the box with the Roccbox is the oven, a gas burner and hookup for your propane tank, a pizza peel, a bottle opener for downtime drinking, a manual, and a Velcro carrier for transporting the thing. What's not included — and I think is essential — is a turning peel(opens in a new tab). That's going to run you an additional $65. Unlike the pizza peel, which allows you to safely place the pizza in the oven or remove it, the turning peel is a smaller, round spatula-like tool used to turn the pizza while you cook it. The oven is also small, so maneuvering the pizza even with the turning peel takes some skill. I wouldn't want to cook a pizza without it, though you could probably get away without it by using the normal peel and a set of tongs. But that increases the likelihood of burning a pizza, and also can be pretty dangerous.
Because the heat comes from the back of the oven, the pizza will need to be spun as it cooks so it cooks evenly and you aren't left with a burnt pizza on one half and an undercooked pizza on the other. Remember, we're cooking with fire, and HOT fire. Gozney claims their oven can reach temperatures of approximately 950°F, which will cook a pizza in about a minute. The turning peel isn't really optional when you're cooking something that fast and that hot.
I personally like the perforated peel that comes with the oven — dare I say, I even prefer it to my fancy wood peel. It's the perfect size so you know exactly how big to make your pizza, and the perforations let excess flour fall through the cracks. Nobody likes a pizza that has too much flour on the bottom.
Also not included in the box is a $49.99 cover(opens in a new tab), which you'll probably want unless you plan on keeping the Roccbox inside or in a shed or garage, and even then you'll probably still want it. You don't really want to leave your expensive oven exposed to the elements.
Cleanup and final impressions
Breaking down and cleaning up the Roccbox is easy enough. Because the temperature gets so high, any residue left in the oven gets burned off and can be scraped away. I had multiple mishaps when testing out the Roccbox, but my messes were easily cleaned with a grill scraper. The unit itself can get pretty sooty, especially if you're burning wood. Gozney recommends using just a little bit of soapy water to clean up your messes, and that also worked pretty well for me.
There are cheaper options out there for pizza ovens(opens in a new tab), especially ones that are only fueled by gas. But what I like so much about the Gozney is that it's built like a tank, and the company itself specializes in commercial pizza ovens. So, sure, if you or the person you're buying this for aren't sure if you even like making pizzas, maybe opt for something cheaper.
But if you want an oven that will perform for years and is incredibly simple to use and truly portable, the Roccbox may be the oven for you. The company offers a 1-year warranty on the Roccbox that can be extended to 5 years if you register the device within 60 days.
In addition to handy guides and tutorials, Gozney has resources on its site(opens in a new tab) for every step in the pizza-making process. It's a great little hobby, making pizza, and one that your family and friends will enjoy, too.
