The Ooni Karu 16 is an unbeatable backyard accessory

Average cooks will become pizza pros with Ooni's top-of-the-line Karu 16

The Ooni Karu 16 pizza oven is an unbeatable backyard accessory Average cooks will become pizza pros with Ooni's top-of-the-line Karu 16 Ben Allen My journey with the Ooni Karu 16 began with a near disaster. I received the machine in March, just as the weather began to turn and lockdown eased. After watching a few YouTube tutorials for other Ooni machines (this one hadn't officially come out yet), I plonked it down on my patio, chucked a load of charcoal, wood and petrol-doused fire starters into the burner and set it all alight. I was, to put it mildly, far too blasé about the whole operation. Five minutes later, flames were shooting out of the oven from both ends, like it had gotten overly cocky in a Brick Lane curry house. I had also placed the oven dangerously close to the wooden fence that separates me from my neighbours. Flames licked its edges threateningly. That I managed to quickly pull the machine away from the fence and reposition it without causing any damage whatsoever was thanks in large part to how well built this behemoth is: it is so heavily insulated that you can touch its sides mid-cook without burning yourself (while wearing safety gloves, at least). The pizza that I was then able to produce — even with some dodgy-shaped homemade dough — was so delicious that no one present seemed too bothered.   The Ooni Karu 16: easy, restaurant-quality pizza   The pitch here, as with every domestic pizza oven worth its salt, is that you can cook restaurant-quality pizza in 90 seconds. And, yes, the Ooni Karu 16 does that with ease. A big box emphatically ticked.    But what's so special about this oven in particular that it should cost the guts of £700? As my near accident suggests, it is surprisingly easy to get this puppy going. The machine is built to take three types of fuel: wood, charcoal and gas (though you'll need to buy a separate attachment for the latter). I found the easiest way to get the fire going and keep it alight was a mixture of charcoal and wood, with the latter staying alight for long periods and the wood providing a large flame that would coat the inside roof of the oven and give the pizzas the perfect char. With large amounts of fire-related faff taken away, making pizza is genuinely, shockingly easy. It is, also, somewhat of a behemoth. It's built to house 16-inch pizzas, a perfect size for sharing at parties.   But the main sell is that it is the very height of Ooni's pizza-making engineering, putting it up with the very best of the best. While I saw many home cooks discussing the difficulty in getting and keeping other inferior pizza ovens hot, I have had little to no issue on that front in more than five months of weekly use. Keeping the fire going requires a fair bit of attention, but it is never hard work and it does not inhibit the pizza-making process at all. As a tester, I cooked one of my pizzas in my traditional oven at its hottest (275C) and it came out hard, chewy and sad-looking. In the Ooni, even over-proofed bases come out soft and delicious. It is, put simply, stupidly easy to make amazing pizza with this oven.    The downsides?   I have noticed that, after a few months outside in London's unseasonably rainy summer, the colouring on the outside has worn away, leaving a kind of dusty, faded grey. The machine is weather-resistant rather than weather-proof, meaning a cover (£49.99) is practically a necessity, unless you have indoor storage for a machine its size (I do not).    But given the amount of use I have gotten from it, the quality of the pizza it produces and the large parties it has provided for, there is no doubt in my mind that anyone genuinely interested in making pizzas from scratch would get their money's worth from this thing.   £699. ooni.com   Now read   Best garden furniture stores for livening up your outdoor space   Best barbecues for mouthwatering summer cookouts   Best beer dispensers to bring the pub home   INTRODUCING... GQ Recommends GQ's edit of all the best products, deals and launches, from fashion and grooming to tech, home and fitness, delivered straight to your inbox in our new newsletter SIGN UP NOW Unsubscribe |View Online Queries about this email? Contact datacontroller@condenast.co.uk Condé Nast Publications 1 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd Our Privacy Policy