Experience report Ooni Fyra – portable pizza oven

Intro:

Well, we are not exactly predestined for testing pizza ovens. We are more the specialists for grilling with current grilling equipment. We are in our element and love barbecuing in any form. But this change had to be now. Pizza is certainly not just the dish from Italy, but is prepared in many different ways around the world. Pizza tastes good to everyone and, just like grilling, preparation is about fire, real fire!
We hear again and again in connection with pizza from ooni … We hear about portable pizza ovens … we hear about innovations from ooni. But what is ooni? It was time to find out.
Ok a German-language homepage or information in German cannot be found. But with an international product, that's not really a problem, you can find the latest information at
ooni.com.
In any case, it was time to find out what ooni is! ooni the private pizza maker!

ooni explains itself as follows:

From creating the world first portable pellet pizza oven back in 2012, our range of back garden pizza ovens allow you to become the ultimate home pizza chef. ooni pizza ovens heat up in just 15 minutes to over 500˚C, which is the temperature you need to make restaurant-quality pizza – the ultimate heat for the ultimate crust! At those intense temperatures, you can cook pizza in JUST 60 seconds. Whether you want wood-fired pizza flavour or the ultimate gaspowered convenience – welcome to a pizza oven that makes pizza better.

These are all nice words, but we now wanted to test the product and check it for everyday use. We couldn’t imagine that with such a small combustion chamber, with the burning of pellets, you could reach a heat of almost 500 ° C and bake a pizza in restaurant quality in less than 2-3 minutes. We were taught better. Simply unbelievable – so much in advance.

Unboxing:

We decided on the basic equipment as follows:

• Ooni Fyra pizza oven
• Ooni Stone baking board
• Ooni Fyra Manual and Essentials Guide with tips and recipes

We added to the basic equipment:

• Ooni 12″; Pizza Peel
• Ooni Premium Hardwood Pellets 10kg
• Ooni Premium Natural Firestarters
• Ooni Fyra Carry Cover

All in all, all products look very high quality. Everything is well and safely packed. The feel is very pleasant. In the actual furnace, mainly stainless steel is used. The few plastic parts also appear very robust. You can tell immediately that this is a high-quality product that you can certainly have fun with for many years. The casing of the oven looks futuristic like a UFO, but is very efficient in terms of heat distribution.

The space-saving foot elements are also particularly interesting. When the chassis is folded out, the device is very secure. When folded, they take up little space. Nothing slips back and forth when the furnace is in operation and you can be sure that the furnace can be loaded without any problems. The other products such as the pellets, the pizza server and the lighters also make a very solid
impression. The pellets are natural and without chemical additives. In any case, you should be very careful when choosing the pellets and use only really natural products.

We were also happy about the included gimmick of a baseball cap with ooni lettering.

Set fire:

The device is assembled in a few simple steps. The heating up can begin. It is like it always is when making a fire. It doesn't matter whether you grill or bake a pizza in a wood oven. Fire is emotion, it is the best way to cook high quality products. A handful of ooni premium hardwood pellets is lit with an ooni premium natural fire starter.

Then the small, burning fire basket is inserted into the pizza oven. What happens then is just fantastic. After about 15-20 minutes the pellets will burn with a high flame, the oven is very hot and
ready to bake a delicious pizza.

In the original, heating up is described as follows:

„Now the oven is burning and we reach temperatures of well over 400 ° C. We tested a homemade pizza dough and a highquality ready-made dough with individual toppings.“

It is amazing how you can bake such a delicious wood-fired pizza with such a small and compact device. Both the homemade pizza base and the finished base are topped with fresh ingredients and
baked hot in the ooni wood oven. To do this, you have to remove the front flap of the ooni every 20- 30 seconds and turn the pizza a little. The pizza is ready after about 2-3 minutes. And it is no exaggeration to say that in our opinion it was probably the best pizza in the last few weeks. The smell of the freshly baked pizza is really exactly what you would expect from a wood-fired pizza. We were happy and enjoyed the pizzas, which we made according to our wishes. We are sure that after repeated use, a certain routine and optimization will take place here. Then the beginner's mistake of not turning the pizza often will no longer happen. After all, we are not professional pizza bakers.

You can see in the photo on the left that the pizza has not been turned for too long. But you have that under control quickly. Therefore TIP: Turn the pizza every 20-30 seconds.

Packing

So after we had a lot of fun with the ooni fyra and ate delicious pizzas, it is time to pack the ooni fyra again. To do this, you have to let the ooni cool down completely. Then comes the next positive
surprise. The ooni can be packed very compactly so that you can take it with you anywhere without any problems. It is basically put in a sports bag and can easily be taken to any new location. More or less I would call the pizza oven a ToGo oven. So the device is versatile.

Before packing, the legs of the device must be folded in and the chimneys pulled out of their holders. The combustion chamber should be emptied and, like charcoal, best emptied into a metal trash can. Careful fire hazard! All parts then go into the ooni bag. When packing you should make sure that the straps of the bag are also led around the bottom. Since the pocket is open at the bottom, all parts would otherwise fall out. As you can see in the photo, the whole device is now neatly packed and can be stowed in every little corner of the garage or in the basement.

Conclusion:

What a surprise. We knew it would. With such a compact device, baking a fine wood-oven quality pizza is almost perfect. It's still a lot of fun. Setting up and starting fire is actually very easy, and the materials and packaging are of very high quality. With a little practice you can bake pizzas that are in same quality to those made by professionals. Above all, the baking result is impressive.

With a weight of around 10 kg, the ooni fyra can be carried in a sports bag and can be used almost anywhere. The fact that the pellets slide through the pellet hopper and their gravity without electrical assistance and thus enable long, permanent heating, is just one of the well thought-out features of the ooni fyra. Only the renunciation of the German language both on the homepage and in the supplied descriptions could be called a small criticism.

We were definitely completely convinced of the ooni fyra and had a lot of fun and enjoyment baking pizza. Now it would be time to test the brother of the fyra as a gas-fired variant, the ooni koda. This is available in 2 sizes. We are convinced that the koda, like the fyra from ooni, also keeps its promises – a delicious pizza.