Before I tested the Ooni Fyra 12, I did not think that this would be the year I mastered making pizza. As a denizen of New York City, I have access to a lot of delicious pizza of all varieties and price points in all directions from my home. Wherever I am, there is pizza. So beyond throwing together the occasional cast iron pie, I never felt the need to employ the skill at home. In particular, I assumed the fancy, leopard-spotted, wood fired pizza on offer at my favorite restaurants was well beyond my (and my apartment’s) capabilities. Why attempt something I’d never do half as well as the pros?

But the Ooni pizza oven wave has been a tough one to ignore.The Scotland-based company, which burst onto the scene with their first model in 2012, has exploded in popularity in recent years. They now offer five models that range in price from $349 to $799, from gas-powered pizza ovens like the Ooni Koda 12 to multi-fuel pizza ovens like the Karu 16 that are compatible with wood, charcoal, and propane. All are only suitable for outdoor use. From their marketing, it would seem that no matter the outdoor space you have access to (photos of fire escape pizzas and camping trip cookouts adorn their Instagram) and your comfort level with live fire cooking, there is an Ooni for you. I decided to take that bet.

Here are some facts about my life that, if purchasing an outdoor pizza oven were like getting a puppy, I would provide to the adoption agency: I have a roof that I can access where I occasionally utilize a tiny charcoal grill, but it is unfinished and a little slanted. There is a table up there, but that’s it. No outlets. No gas hook-up. Real sparse vibes. Additionally, I do not like the idea of using a propane tank, because they freak me out. The less I have to do in order to keep this oven lit and operational, the better. With all of that in mind, I referred to Ooni’s Compare Ovens page and determined that the Fyra 12 was the match for me.

Lightweight and compact, the Ooni Fyra 12 portable pizza oven can be toted up and down from the roof when needed. It’s the least expensive model that the company currently sells. And best of all, it is fueled by wood pellets, which you feed into a hopper at the back of the oven. No stoking flames, rearranging charcoal or logs, or (god forbid) touching a propane tank in any way.

When the oven arrived at my house, I made a batch of dough, carried it to the roof, and got baking. The rest—trial and error, many pizzas, multiple rooftop parties, lots of compliments, and a declaration that summer 2022 is the summer of pizza, at least at my house—is history.

Read on to learn more about how the Ooni Fyra 12 wood pellet pizza oven works, where it is most successful, and the pizza oven’s biggest drawbacks.

The Ooni Fyra 12 is a relatively small pizza oven that, under the right conditions, can cook 12-inch pizzas (among other things) in a minute flat. It weighs 22 pounds, measures 29.1 x 15.4 x 28.5", and can easily be stored in its box when not in use. It comprises three main pieces: the carbon steel shell, which sits on fold-out legs and contains a cordierite stone baking board and a grated fuel chamber; the chimney, which has a small lever on the side to open or close the vent; and the fuel hopper, which is where you add wood pellets to keep the fire burning. To operate the oven, you will need a thin pizza peel, all-natural fire starter, and wood pellets, all of which are available through Ooni but are not included with the purchase of a Fyra 12. (They do offer all of the above, plus an infrared thermometer and waterproof carry cover, in one bundle.) As of publication, it is the least expensive Ooni oven, at $349, and it comes with a three-year warranty.

To cook with the Ooni Fyra pizza oven, you must set it up outdoors on a flat surface (the company recommends wood, stone or metal tables, which it also sells) at least 3 feet from a building. First, pull the metal fuel tray out from the back of the oven and fill it with wood pellets and one firestarter; light the firestarter and slide the tray back into the body of the oven. This will be the base of your fire. After it’s blazing (15-ish minutes, you can peek through a peephole at the front of the oven to check), you’ll add more fuel to the pellet hopper to keep a constant flow of fuel feeding down into the fire. A hopper full of pellets lasts about 15 minutes, and you must constantly replenish it if you want the fire to stay strong. Forget about it for too long and the temperature will drop, which cannot be fixed by simply adding more pellets.

Cooking pizza with the Ooni Fyra 12 is as easy as topping your dough round on a floured pizza peel and, after 15 minutes of preheating, sliding the pizza onto the cooking surface. At full temperature (Ooni says you’re looking for about 950°F, which you can check with an infrared thermometer), you’ll want to rotate your pizza every 30 seconds or so until all sides have some time near the fire. Your pizza will be puffed, perfectly charred in spots, and fully cooked in one to two minutes.

You can also cook other things using the Ooni Fyra 12, provided you have cookware that fits inside the oven slot. Ooni provides recipes on their website for things like duck breasts and banana bread, which you cook the same way you would in any wood fired oven—rotating to give every angle equal time facing the heat source. A tiny cast-iron skillet will work here, but you’ll need to pull the skillet out and rotate the food inside the pan rather than turning the pan itself, since the handle of the skillet will stick out of the oven; Ooni sidesteps this problem by selling its own cast iron skillet that features a removable handle. I think this is fussy (the pan is also a little flimsy and small, IMO), so I will stick to pizza.

The Ooni Fyra 12 makes great pizza. Regardless of the dough you use (I’ve tried a few homemade recipes as well as store bought), the results are puffed, spotted, and cooked in record time. It’s a delight to use for a fun dinner for two and amazing as a centerpiece of a party, once you get a handle on your personal system and best practices. The compact nature of the oven also means that whenever it’s not getting the party started, it can easily be stowed away in its box, which is relatively narrow and stackable. As a hater of one-trick kitchen gadgets and large appliances generally, I was surprised how much I loved the Ooni, and how readily I made space for it in my home—the payoff is just that fun.

My favorite thing about the oven is how easy it is to use. The wood pellets and firestarter combo could not be simpler, and so long as you keep the hopper filled to the top (and don’t, as I did on one occasion, forget about it while eating pizza for 45 minutes), you’ll be rewarded with consistent, very high temperatures. The first time I used the Fyra, I was scared about getting the pizza off the peel and into the oven, not maneuvering the pie around the oven correctly, or otherwise ruining dinner by having no experience working with a pizza oven before, but the entire process was intuitive. Without ever interacting with live fire, you reap all of the flavorful benefits in your cooking.

It was a huge bummer to receive my Ooni with the plan to make pizza that very day, only to discover that I did not have a bunch of the requisite materials—namely, a pizza peel, fire starter, or wood pellets, none of which come in the box. If you do not buy the pizza peel from Ooni, be sure to get a model that is thin and narrow enough that you can fit it, plus a pizza, into the oven with enough clearance to shake, shift, and angle each direction. I got this one and really like it. You could presumably use a wooden peel as well, but I found I needed the thinness of metal to successfully maneuver.

For my maiden pizza voyage, I sourced all-natural fire starters and organic wood pellets from a local hardware store, which initially seemed to work fine. But the oven never reached the temperatures that the website claimed it could, and it took more like 4-6 minutes to cook each pizza. When I used the actual Ooni branded starter and hardwood pellets, the fire lit much faster and was much stronger, to the point that I could cook the same dough in a fraction of the time (1-2 minutes total).

The only additional drawbacks about the Ooni Fyra 12 are things I could have anticipated and ultimately felt I could live with. Cleaning the oven is a little fussy, for example. After waiting for it to cool entirely and disposing of the ashes, you can wipe the inside down with a dry cloth (no water can be used) and, as the company writes on their website, scrape off stubborn bits of food or debris from the cooking surface with a pizza brush. I needed to use a fish spatula and some elbow grease to really clean the baking stone, though by flipping it for the next cook (as recommended), I did find that the high heat helped burn any straggling bits off.

The Fyra 12 is awesome, with some caveats. The Ooni branded pellets and fire starters are a must, which is annoying, but your pizza will thank you. And you need to stay vigilant about keeping the hopper full of pellets if you’re making many pizzas in a row. But if you’re down to keep those things in mind, I can’t recommend it more highly. It’s as low maintenance as a wood fired pizza oven can get and produces stellar results in a sleek, compact format that folds away to store when not in use. I am excited to use the Fyra 12 again and again—already planning a pizza party for when my parents visit next month, which is a true testament to how well it works. I could take them for pizza anywhere in New York City! But now the stuff I can make at home is just as good.