The thrill of that first, gooey cheese‑pull needn’t be the preserve of your favourite trattoria any longer. Thanks to a surge in at-home pizza ovens over the past decade, you can now coax blistered, leopard‑spotted crusts and bubbling, golden‑brown mozzarella from the comfort of your own kitchen or garden.
We caught up with Tom Gozney, the visionary behind the Gozney pizza oven, to unpick his top tips – everything from nailing the perfect dough to choosing the right cooking fuel – so you can recreate that elusive, restaurant‑quality pizza experience on your very own worktop. Get ready to up your home‑baked game and bid farewell to soggy bases for good.
How to make restaurant-grade pizza at home
FOODISM: How do you make the perfect pizza at home?
TOM GOZNEY Start with the dough – that’s where the magic is. Slow-fermented. High hydration. Give it time – 72 to 120 hours if you can – and let it develop character. Then keep it simple: great tomatoes, fresh garlic, a little sea salt. Add your protein if that’s what you like. No need to overload it – the best pizzas are about balance and restraint. But the real secret is heat. You can do everything right, but without serious heat, you’ll never get that blistered crust, that airy bite, that wood-fired flavour. Powerful at-home pizza ovens which reach up to 500°C will give you that restaurant taste. The joys of cheese-pulls and thick crusts are no longer confined to your local Italian restaurant. Tom Gozney has introduced an at-home pizza oven that makes firing up pizzas a breeze. The founder has shared his thoughts on how to create the perfect dough and his go-to pizza toppings, reminding us that sometimes, simple is best.
F What are the benefits of cooking with a pizza oven?
TG You get restaurant-level heat, precision engineering, and serious control. And it’s not just pizza. You can roast meat, bake bread, sear steaks, char veg, cook fish straight on the stone – anything you fancy really. When we build products at Gozney, we’re designing for something deeper – that feeling of lighting the fire, bringing people together, and creating something real. It’s not a gadget, it’s a sort of ritual engine.
Blistered crusts from the comfort of your own lawn
F Gas vs wood?
TG Both have their place. Gas is about flow. It’s consistent, clean, and easy to control – especially when you’re cooking for a crowd. You can maintain the temperature perfectly, stay in rhythm, and focus on the food and the people, not fire management. It’s effortless precision, and that is powerful when you’re hosting. Wood? That’s a different beast. It’s primal. It gives you flavour, theatre, and immersion. The smell of burning hardwood, the crackle, the visual heat – it pulls you in. And when you get it right, the food just hits differently. I believe it’s all about matching the fuel to the moment.
F What is your go-to pizza recipe?
TG It starts and ends with the dough. I’m obsessed with it. 120-hour slow-fermented, carefully tended, totally alive. That’s where the flavour is and that’s where the magic happens. Toppings? I keep it simple. Classic marinara: deep tomato flavour, loads of garlic, maybe some anchovies if I’m feeling it, and a hit of oregano. No cheese. The truth is, if the dough’s spot on – light, blistered, airy, with that perfect bite – you don’t need much on top.
