Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven

The Ooni Karu 12 exists for a particular kind of domestic escalation: someone makes a decent pizza at home once, then decides their regular oven is an affront to civilisation. We think that instinct is mostly ridiculous, but also entirely understandable. A crisp, fast-fired pizza has a way of turning an ordinary garden meal into an event, complete with flour on the patio and one person appointed Minister for Turning.

This is a 12-inch outdoor multi-fuel pizza oven, designed to run on wood or charcoal. Gas is also an option, though it requires Ooni’s separately sold burner. That is a meaningful choice rather than a decorative line on a box: wood and charcoal bring the fire-tending ceremony, while gas offers a more controlled-looking route for cooks who would rather not conduct a tiny volcano after work.

Ooni states that the Karu 12 reaches 450°C in as little as 15 minutes, climbs to 500°C, and can cook a pizza in as little as 60 seconds. Those figures explain its appeal. This is not a gadget for gently warming a supermarket pizza while apologising to it; it is built around the high-heat, quick-bake style people actually mean when they start talking about buying a pizza oven.

There is faff, naturally. At 12kg, with unboxed dimensions of 80cm by 40cm by 77cm, it needs somewhere sensible to live between performances. Nor is a thermometer built in. Still, the Karu 12 earns our pick because it puts the core pizza-oven fantasy in a manageable 12-inch format, while leaving buyers a genuine fuel choice instead of making them pledge allegiance to one barbecue religion.