Damn! $1499.. even though you can a whole lot more than pizza like ribs, steaks, etc etc.. this looks like it would be a blast to have.
If you're seriously interested in outdoor cooking or taking your pizza making to the next level, the Gozney Dome is a stylish yet professional-grade oven that lives up to the hype.
My first impressions of the Gozney Dome were positive. With the promise of a professional-grade cooking experience packaged neatly in a modern and stylish oven, the Dome's sleek marketing and clean presentation give it plenty of cool factor. Plus, the Dome just looks good, with the Gozney name stamped into the metal interior and the logo visible from the front.
Wood or gas?
The unit I was sent had gas and wood cooking capabilities. You can buy a Gozney Dome that only allows for wood cooking for $1,499, but if you're going to spend that kind of dough (pizza pun not intended) you may as well spring for the $1,799 dual fuel unit. Cooking with firewood is an amazing experience everyone passionate about cooking should try, but it also takes more time, has a steep learning curve, and can be quite finicky.
I cooked with both wood and gas, and while the meals cooked with wood tasted better thanks to the added smokiness, tending the fire took my full attention. This meant making sure I wasn't creating a flame so large that it would escape from the front of my oven, while stoking it enough to ensure enough heat.
Cooking with gas is easy and still delivers while cooking with wood is more tasty and fun and somewhat of an experience. And the way it switches between the two is pretty genius. One side of the oven has a gas burner that can be covered with a stone "puck" if using wood. The opposite side of the oven has a tray that collects ashes and you move the puck depending on your heat source to open up more surface area.
Unboxing and setup
Unboxing the Dome was simple — Gozney's packing for all of its products is well-thought-out, and its instructions for set up are clearly written, and accompanied by IKEA-style images. For the Dome itself, the only major pain is lifting it up and putting it on the surface you'd like to cook. The thing is pretty heavy, but the oven included handles so that two (strong) people can easily place it on a surface or the Dome Stand, which will run you an extra $299. The Dome is extremely well insulated though, so you don't need the stand if you have a safe outdoor countertop. I found the Dome Stand useful but mediocre; my wing tables weren't quite level, making them sort of useless.
SEE ALSO: Gozney's Roccbox is a portable and powerful pizza oven that can make a mean pie
The only other set up for the Dome itself is popping some supplied batteries into the built-in thermometer unit and another into the igniter for the pilot light. I found the screw on the back of the thermometer to be annoyingly small and I nearly stripped it. To insert the battery into the igniter you have to remove a small panel on the back of the oven which had some odd-shaped screws. My house has a decent collection of tools, and I struggled to find something that would work, but I eventually got the battery in and used my hands to screw the panel cover back in place.
Aside from the small screw issues, setup was a breeze.
Cooking pizza with the Gozney Dome
Let me be very clear: I had a blast cooking with the Gozney Dome. It's just a very fun piece of cookware, in a world of increasingly "fun" and weird cooking trends.
The initial appeal of the Gozney Dome is its promise to reach blazing hot temperatures upwards of 950 degrees Fahrenheit. For serious pizza cooks, high temperatures are essential and something a normal oven just can't achieve. This is a big reason you're seeing a boom in residential pizza ovens over the last few years; as interest in making pizza at home has spiked, sales of the tools needed to achieve that have also seen a boom.
If you're seriously interested in outdoor cooking or taking your pizza making to the next level, the Gozney Dome is a stylish yet professional-grade oven that lives up to the hype.
My first impressions of the Gozney Dome were positive. With the promise of a professional-grade cooking experience packaged neatly in a modern and stylish oven, the Dome's sleek marketing and clean presentation give it plenty of cool factor. Plus, the Dome just looks good, with the Gozney name stamped into the metal interior and the logo visible from the front.
Wood or gas?
The unit I was sent had gas and wood cooking capabilities. You can buy a Gozney Dome that only allows for wood cooking for $1,499, but if you're going to spend that kind of dough (pizza pun not intended) you may as well spring for the $1,799 dual fuel unit. Cooking with firewood is an amazing experience everyone passionate about cooking should try, but it also takes more time, has a steep learning curve, and can be quite finicky.
I cooked with both wood and gas, and while the meals cooked with wood tasted better thanks to the added smokiness, tending the fire took my full attention. This meant making sure I wasn't creating a flame so large that it would escape from the front of my oven, while stoking it enough to ensure enough heat.
Cooking with gas is easy and still delivers while cooking with wood is more tasty and fun and somewhat of an experience. And the way it switches between the two is pretty genius. One side of the oven has a gas burner that can be covered with a stone "puck" if using wood. The opposite side of the oven has a tray that collects ashes and you move the puck depending on your heat source to open up more surface area.
Unboxing and setup
Unboxing the Dome was simple — Gozney's packing for all of its products is well-thought-out, and its instructions for set up are clearly written, and accompanied by IKEA-style images. For the Dome itself, the only major pain is lifting it up and putting it on the surface you'd like to cook. The thing is pretty heavy, but the oven included handles so that two (strong) people can easily place it on a surface or the Dome Stand, which will run you an extra $299. The Dome is extremely well insulated though, so you don't need the stand if you have a safe outdoor countertop. I found the Dome Stand useful but mediocre; my wing tables weren't quite level, making them sort of useless.
SEE ALSO: Gozney's Roccbox is a portable and powerful pizza oven that can make a mean pie
The only other set up for the Dome itself is popping some supplied batteries into the built-in thermometer unit and another into the igniter for the pilot light. I found the screw on the back of the thermometer to be annoyingly small and I nearly stripped it. To insert the battery into the igniter you have to remove a small panel on the back of the oven which had some odd-shaped screws. My house has a decent collection of tools, and I struggled to find something that would work, but I eventually got the battery in and used my hands to screw the panel cover back in place.
Aside from the small screw issues, setup was a breeze.
Cooking pizza with the Gozney Dome
Let me be very clear: I had a blast cooking with the Gozney Dome. It's just a very fun piece of cookware, in a world of increasingly "fun" and weird cooking trends.
The initial appeal of the Gozney Dome is its promise to reach blazing hot temperatures upwards of 950 degrees Fahrenheit. For serious pizza cooks, high temperatures are essential and something a normal oven just can't achieve. This is a big reason you're seeing a boom in residential pizza ovens over the last few years; as interest in making pizza at home has spiked, sales of the tools needed to achieve that have also seen a boom.
