Ooni Koda Review - One Year Later | BEGINNERS PIZZA GUIDE!
Hello! Welcome to our learning to cook pizza journey! Hope you are all keeping safe and well. It's been a year since I bought the Koda and it's gone very fast! I'm now awaiting the Ooni Koda 16 which is going to be back in stock in August - can't wait to give that pizza oven a try! The gas-fired Gozney Roccbox is also a great pizza oven if you are new to pizza making! I highly recommend that oven too and I will do a review of the Roccbox soon!It’s been a year! That went fast and I’ve learnt so much since last May when I purchased the Ooni Koda!
Before the Ooni Koda came onto the market I was using the Ooni Pro and the Ooni 3. The Ooni Pro was a wood-fired game-changer in the portable pizza oven market and then out came the gas-fired Koda!
I’ve created a Pizza for Beginners YouTube playlist that gives some great tips to help your learning to cook pizza journey! Enjoy your Pizza Cooking!
I was so excited to start using the Ooni Koda, mostly due to the way the gas burner had been designed and it provided a much-improved flame cooking experience.
To this day, the flame burner design is my favourite from the Ooni range and so now I can’t wait to get my hands on the new Ooni Koda 16 pizza oven which I hope to have by the end of August.
So, after one whole year of using and cooking with the Ooni Koda, were there any issues with the oven?
Check out my video above where I show the Ooni Koda after one year of use:
THE BODY
When the oven temperature increases and decreases from high to low it’s important for the oven structure to withstand that process over time.
What I mean by this is that we don’t want an oven to change shape and become weakened due to heat damage from continuous use.
I am pleased to say that the structure of the Ooni Koda has remained perfectly intact and is still looking as good as it did on its first cook – apart from a few scratches I made on the front area! Not only does it look good but the oven’s outer body shell looks like new – no discolouration, staining or cracks.
This is my favourite gas burner from the Ooni Oven range – with its highly effective, linear wispy design. No change there and it still works well. The dial at the back could do with some upgrading to make it clearer where you are with the flame size. The ignition still works well and clicks on every time, so no need for matches.
Because I cook pizza outside all year round, I’ve come to realise that during the colder months, I’ve been reaching out for the Ooni Koda more than the other ovens. That’s because of these reasons:
- It warms up fast so I can make a pizza before the weather changes
- It cools down fast so I don’t have to leave the oven out for long and can quickly put it back into storage once it’s cooled down.
- It’s lightweight – I can’t carry heavy objects and the Koda is very light for a pizza oven and so it’s easy to manoeuvre out of storage.
I learnt so much more about how to cook pizza whilst using the Koda. Instead of worrying about the flames burning my pizza crust, I was able to use an oven that I could easily control and this allowed me to concentrate on using the turning peel and to focus on creating a great crunchy pizza crust.
With a slight turn of the dial, I had for once total control of the flames and this allowed me to focus on the pizza and to manage the way it was being cooked.
And that is why this pizza oven is superb for beginners and experienced cooks alike.
Enjoy!
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