Cuisinart CPO-401 Outdoor Pizza Oven

Backyard pizza ovens seem to be the latest craze and I decided to give it a try too. This model from Cuisinart looked like a nice design to me and a really good price compared to other options. Assembly out of the box is fast and simple and pretty much anyone can do it within minutes of unboxing.They recommend doing a 30+ minute max heat burn-in prior to first cook to eliminate any manufacturing residues. DON'T SKIP THIS! The paint gave off a bit of odor during burn-in as did some of the oils on the metal but it all went away by the end. You don't want any of that on your first pizza!Now on to the cooking. The oven lights easily and comes up to temperature very fast. It easily reaches over 500F within three minutes. Access to the cooking area can be made through the traditional front door, but the entire top half is hinged and can be raised up like a regular BBQ grill. While it may not seem obvious at first, including the ability to open up the top adds an incredible amount of flexibility to what you can do with this "pizza oven".As you can see in one of my photos, you can place items bigger than a 10" pizza on the cook surface. In this case, I made a Detroit style pan pizza which you can see is much larger than the pizza stone but fits perfectly in the oven. I have also found one of my cast iron skillets that is a perfect fit for the rack that holds the pizza stone. Swap the skillet for the stone and you have an awesome grill to get the high heat needed for a reverse sear steak. It can take my full-size BBQ almost 30 minutes to get up to sear temperature but this tiny oven gets there in about 5 minutes.And oh yeah - it can bake a great backyard stone-fired pizza too! Definitely a great buy and I will get a ton of use from it for years to come.

this oven was seemingly designed by a kindergarten class.

There are so many things to like about this Cuisinart pizza oven. For one, it simply looks great. It's super easy assemble, just attach the four legs and handle and that's it. It's propane powered, so just connect a 20lb tank and away you go.My big mistake was not getting the stone hot enough fir, (major pizza fail with sticking to the stone) but it was still salvageable minus a little missing bottom crust. After this first rushed attempt (I was really too excited to wait), I've watched a number of videos and know that the stone needs to be the same temp as the air around it. To that end, I've ordered a laser thermometer. This is a necessity as it turns out.Also, I didn't have a pizza peel, so I've ordered one of those as well. I just did the best I could with a large metal spatula...another mistake! Oh well, I'm learning and having a blast.This is of course only meant to be used outdoors. And there is a learning curve for sure. It's not like buying a pre-made frozen pizza at the store. This cooks around 700º and the pizza gets done in a couple minutes, so you have to be on your toes.Make sure you have the right gear, watch videos on using outdoor pizza ovens and reset your expectations for the first initial pizzas. They likely will disappoint until you get the hang of it.Lastly, make sure you pre burn off both the stone and oven as these have a typical new smell when breaking in or burning off for the first time. And if/when you do make a mess on the stone DO NOT try and wash it off. You'll ruin the stone. Simply put it upside down on the burner and next time you heat the oven it will clean itself.I can’t wait to get better at it and perfect my pizza making skills! Remember, it's all about the journey!

Cuisinart quality. Great outdoor pizza oven for those that wants to fill their outdoor kitchen or patio with additional appliances. This oven is propane powered. Just connect your propane tank and fire this bad boy up. Yes operations is that easy. However, you can easily cook a fresh pizza in your regular kitchen oven as well if you are on a tight budget.

This is a really nice pizza oven. You just connect it to a propane tank, turn it on, and you're ready to go. We made some pizza dough and flung it in! We let it cook for 7 or 8 minutes (yea, we know NOW) and that was a bit too long as you can see in my pics. SOOOOO, we tried again. This time for only 5 minutes and timed. I mean, come on, only 5 minutes? Do pizzas cook that fast? YEA, they do and burn as well, "again"! 😂🤣 Now, we know that it really does only take a few minutes to cook an ENTIRE pizza. WOW, right? It is a nice pizza oven so far... the cook is learning. The burnt pizza still (oddly) tasted really good. 🍕🍕🍕