Interview: Ooni Co-CEO talks about how he created the world's first portable wood-fired pizza oven

Outdoor cooking has come on in leaps and bounds, and one of the standout products that has spurred on this growth are the best pizza ovens. One of the main brands to have contributed to this is Ooni, the Edinburgh-based outdoor oven company that’s credited as making the world’s first portable wood-pellet pizza oven.

Founded in 2012, Ooni has gone on to become one of the leading pizza oven manufacturers on the market. It has four pizza oven collections under its belt – Koda, Karu, Fyra and Volt – that are portable, compact and make delicious pizzas in record time.

This year, Ooni launched the Koda 2 Max, its biggest and smartest pizza oven to date. I was lucky enough to see the Ooni Koda 2 Max in action, and I was stunned by its innovative dual-zone technology and tasty treats it made, including scallops, lamb chops and steak.

To find out more about the latest Ooni pizza oven, I spoke to Kristian Tapaninaho, founder and Co-CEO of Ooni who talked us through the future plans of Ooni.

What was your focus and idea behind creating Ooni?

When I started Ooni, my primary focus was to solve the problem of not being able to make restaurant-quality, wood-fired pizza at home. I was really getting into pizza-making at the time, but my oven just couldn't reach the high temperatures needed for Neapolitan-style dough. The options available back then were bulky and expensive, which felt impractical for home use. I just knew there had to be a better solution, something smaller and more accessible.

That’s when I began designing the first Ooni and the world's first portable wood-fired pizza oven was born. Our goal was always to make an efficient and easy-to-use product so that anyone could make stunning pizza at home. This has always been our core driving force, but this has now expanded into a broader mission of empowering people to make incredible food anywhere and connecting people with their friends and family. We're super proud of our product range but at the heart of it all, it’s about people and passion.

How do you feel Ooni sets itself apart from other pizza oven brands on the market?

We created the portable wood-fired pizza oven category in 2012, and it's pretty amazing looking back over the last 12 years and seeing how established the category is now. Not only are we category leaders and creators, but our whole team is devoted to redefining the outdoor cooking industry and constantly striving to make better products. This drive is really shown in our latest pizza oven, the Koda 2 Max, which I can confidently say is the best pizza oven available today.

As well as product innovation, what really sets Ooni apart is our incredible community. We have over 4 million people connected through our social media platforms, where they can find kindred spirits to share any wins and fails, along with any tips and tricks from their pizza-making journeys. It’s inspiring to see the kindness and the total passion that people have for food and what it means. We love being a part of that.

The Ooni Koda 2 Max launched this year – what was your idea behind the new model?

We wanted to create a pizza oven that was super versatile and perfect for families and large gatherings. The Ooni Koda 2 Max is the biggest and most powerful we’ve ever created. It takes the user-friendliness of the Koda range but is levelled up with incredible performance and cooking space.

When we designed this upgraded pizza oven, we made sure it could handle multiple pizzas and dishes at the same time, making it the ultimate social cooking tool. The 24-inch gas-powered oven features dual-zone cooking – something that’s become the norm in air fryers – which is a total game changer. You can now bake a Neapolitan-style pizza at one temperature on one side while slow-roasting some veggies on the other. The Koda 2 Max also has our thickest cooking surface yet, a 20 mm cordierite stone, which means fantastic heat retention, ideal for back-to-back pizzas.

The Koda 2 Max is also our first connected oven. This means that you can receive precise air temperature readings from both sides of the oven through the Ooni Connect Digital Temperature Hub and digital food probes. You can even mirror this on your smartphone for real-time notifications through the Ooni Connect app, so you’re always in tune with your cooking.

Dual-zone cooking is something you typically see in air fryers – why do you think it’s important to introduce this to other appliances like pizza ovens?

It really comes down to versatility and control. Being able to cook different dishes according to their specific requirements, side-by-side in one space, makes catering for a crowd so much easier. You can easily cook a whole menu of dishes together or fire out up to three pizzas at once. This setup gives home cooks more range and choice in how they're using the product, opening up opportunities for creativity. 

What is your favourite Ooni pizza oven (so far)?

It's tough to pick a single favourite because they all shine in their own ways. However, I must admit that the Ooni Koda 2 Max truly stands out and deserves a spot on my top list. It can handle pretty much anything you throw at it - scallops to massive T-bone steaks to 20” NY-style pizzas. I’ve of course been using it a lot throughout the development but now that it’s in the market, watching top chefs create some of the best food I've ever eaten is an eye-opening experience. It was clear that this isn't just a tool for making pizza; it's super versatile and capable of enhancing any special occasion.

What are your tips for making the perfect pizza?

Probably the most important advice I can give to someone looking to get into pizza making is to always work with peels. A common issue when launching and retrieving pizza is dough that has become sticky from a hot pizza peel. 

To avoid this, I always recommend using two peels simultaneously. One peel, the ‘prep peel’, should be used for building the pizza and launching it into your Ooni. The second, the ‘warm peel’ is for turning and retrieving hot pizza from your oven. This way, the prep peel always stays at room temperature and doesn't heat up from the oven. 

Apart from that, it's always more fun when you get your friends and family involved! Show them how to stretch their bases and ask them to help with topping, launching and turning pizzas. There are some other knacks that can really help your pizza-making experience and we have plenty of easy to follow videos on the Ooni website to guide you through the process.

Aside from pizza, what’s your favourite thing to cook in your Ooni?

Beyond pizza, I’ll often use my Ooni for steaks or smoking fish. When I’ve got the time for a long cook, a 2.5 kg prime rib is an absolute show-stopper.

While most steak recipes will tell you to start with a super-hot pan to sear the meat and then finish it on a lower heat, I prefer to cook a prime rib in exactly the opposite way, using Kenji López-Alt’s reverse sear technique. This involves slow-cooking the joint, then finishing it with a fast sear, resulting in a more evenly cooked and juicier meat.

You can really get creative when using an Ooni oven and I also enjoy experimenting with the various accessories we've developed for our oven. When cooking prime rib, I make sure to use the roasting pan which is designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of an Ooni oven.

When designing new products, do you speak to customers and chefs about what they want? If so, why is this important to you and the Ooni team?

Absolutely, when designing new products, we make it a priority to speak to both customers and chefs. This way, we make sure all Ooni products meet the needs and desires of our community who will be using them.

Community feedback provides invaluable insights into what works well and what could be improved. They often highlight practical aspects that we might not have considered and their experiences help us refine our designs to be even more user-friendly and effective.

We also work with a team of passionate ambassadors around the world, who are excellent at-home pizza chefs, and take all of their feedback on board throughout the product development process.

Any upcoming plans for Ooni in the future?

Innovation is part of our DNA so we're continuously developing amazing new products to keep revolutionising the cooking space. I can’t give anything away, but make sure to follow us on @ooni.uk on Instagram to stay up to date!

Kristian Tapaninaho, Founder and Co-CEO of Ooni

Kristian Tapaninaho is the Founder and Co-CEO of Ooni. Originally from Finland, he is the inventor of the world’s first portable wood-fired oven in 2012 and along with that, the category of the modern pizza oven. Through the spark of this initial idea, Kristian’s gone on to set the world alight with a range of innovative products and leads a world-class team building the future of Ooni. The little time he has outside of work is usually spent hill running with the family dog, Marty McFly, or wall climbing with his two sons.