There’s nothing better than having homemade fresh pizza. Actually, wait there is, having homemade fresh pizza in 60 seconds. At least, that’s what the Ooni Koda 16 Gas Powered Pizza Oven claims to do.
That’s right, the Ooni Koda 16 aims to make it easier than ever for Aussies to have the best summer BBQs filled with delicious backyard pizza that you don’t have to wait around for.
By reaching up to 500°C, the Koda 16 uses an L-shaped burner to create the perfect temperature to cook your pizzas in 60 seconds. It’s also super portable, all you need is a gas tank.
Lifehacker Australia got to test out the Ooni Koda 16 following its Australian launch, here’s what we thought.
Quick specs of the Ooni Koda 16
As mentioned, the Ooni Koda 16 is a gas-powered pizza oven that is designed for stone-baking pizzas up to 16 inches.
You can also cook steaks, fish and veggies in there because why would you just limit yourself to pizza?
The difference between the Ooni Koda 16 and other pizza ovens is that it has an innovative L-shaped burner, wide opening and large cordierite stone baking board, all of which combine to create seamless pizzas in the blink of an eye (if your blink takes 60 seconds, that is).
Similar to the rest of the Ooni range, the Koda 16 can reach temperatures of 500°C in under 20 minutes and cook pizzas within 60 seconds. It also weighs around 17 kg, meaning it’s perfectly portable, unlike larger pizza ovens.
Here are some quick specs:
- Gas fueled for ultimate ease and control
- Heats to 500°C
- Cooks fresh, stone-baked pizza in 60 seconds
- Extra-large cooking area for meats, bread, fish and more
- Innovative L-shaped flame for one-turn cooking
- Custom-made 15mm thick cordierite stone baking board
- Full insulated shell to retain heat
- One-touch gas ignition
- Collapsable legs
- Additional infrared thermometer to temperature check the stone board
Fun fact: According to Ooni, it’s the only brand to have one of its home pizza ovens, the Ooni Karu 16, approved by the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, which is a not-for-profit organisation in Italy that promotes and protects true Neapolitan pizza worldwide.
Perfect pizzas in 60 seconds
Even though I’ve already said it several times, I’m going to say it again because I was truly blown away by it: the Ooni Koda 16 really does cook pizza perfectly in 60 seconds.
In fact, by the time we were cooking the third or fourth pizza, they were ready in about 45 seconds.
To me, this is the biggest selling point of the Ooni Koda 16. Having to wait for your pizza to cook is pretty annoying but it also means that guests have to stand around awkwardly waiting.
When I was using the Koda 16, we cooked around 4 or 5 pizzas within 6 minutes. All of them were cooked evenly and very few were burnt.
That meant that my guests didn’t have to wait and only eat one or two slices of pizza because the oven was taking too long to cook the rest. With the Koda 16, we could enjoy multiple different pizzas because they were all ready in quick succession.
The L-shaped fire design
A large part of why the Ooni Koda 16 can cook pizzas within 60 seconds is due to the innovative L-shaped gas burner and the baking stone.
When on, the L-shaped flames create a sort of upward waterfall effect that creates a heat map in the oven.
The stone surface will eventually become hotter the closer it gets to the flame, obviously. But then the heat spreads throughout the board, giving you different variations of heat depending on how you want to cook your food.
As such, it’s important to note that you need to rotate your pizza at around 20 seconds so you can get an even and consistent bake.
You really have to be present and ready to rotate that pizza because they really do cook so quickly. You don’t want to have one-half of your pizza burnt within a matter of seconds.
Sleek and portable
I was pleasantly surprised by how light the Ooni Koda 16 was.
It has collapsible legs which means you can really take it anywhere. I think it would be great while camping or on a road trip.
The Ooni Koda 16 is also quite compact, only measuring 63 x 58 x 37 cm, with a sleek turtle shape design. It’s not only stylish, but it also doesn’t take up a lot of room.
One thing I appreciated about the Koda 16 was how easy it was to set up. I feel like so many pizza ovens are daunting and largely inaccessible to the everyday person. None of that was true in my experience. In fact, all you had to do was connect the Koda 16 to a gas tank, insert the stone board and you were ready to go.
The temperature gauge is also super simple to use with just a dial that controls the flame size.
Ooni has really taken the guesswork out of making restaurant-level pizzas with their ovens.
The app
Something else I thought was super handy was the Ooni app. It has everything you could possibly need to know about Ooni, your oven and pizza itself.
From how-to videos to troubleshooting, the app is just another feature from Ooni that adds an extra layer of care. To me, it shows just how much consideration has gone into making the Ooni range accessible, allowing everyone to make delicious pizzas with ease.
The app also has Ooni’s favourite recipes and videos on how to make the perfect pizza dough, sauce and even how to properly insert your pizza into the oven.
Overall verdict of the Ooni Koda 16
There isn’t a single thing I can fault with the Ooni Koda 16.
It did everything I hoped it would. It cooked delicious pizza, and then some. I truly was blown away by its cooking speed and how easy it was to set up, use and pack away.
Although the price is rather steep, retailing for $AU1,239, you truly are getting what you paid for, if not more.
The quality and amount of pizzas you can get out of the Ooni Koda 16 to me, is priceless. Also, the portability factor makes the Ooni Koda 16 a real contender for the best pizza oven. Especially ones that cost more and offer less.
Something that I discovered when writing this review was that Ooni is a member of 1% For The Planet where 50 trees are planted for every Ooni Koda 16 sold. So maybe that might help ease the price point (with your conscience at least).
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