This $800 Countertop Pizza Oven Could Help You Break Your Delivery Habit

Some meals are worth making in your own kitchen, but homemade pizza is a hard sell. Without a blazing hot oven, it's difficult to make a pie that lives up to what you'd get at your neighborhood slice joint. If you can't have a Neapolitan-style stone oven installed in your home, this countertop device spotted by Fast Company may be the next best thing for home cooks.

The Pizzaiolo (also the Italian term for "pizza maker") is an oven that's specifically designed to cook pizza. It heats up to 750°F, which is the temperature professionals used to achieve a perfectly crisp, chewy crust in their restaurants. Instead of a wood fire, the Pizzaiolo uses 1800 watts of power to heat various parts of the pizza individually, with a pizza stone charring the bottom and an integrated heat shield reflecting heat away from the center and toward the crust—simulating a human pizzaiolo rotating the pie as it cooks.

Unlike a rustic brick oven, the Pizzaiolo isn't finicky. You can program it to cook whatever style pizza you've prepared, whether it's pan pizza, New York style, Neapolitan, or anything else. The oven is fast, producing perfectly-cooked pizzas in just two minutes. (After reaching such high temperatures, it does take about 15 minutes to cool down.)

Making pizzeria-style pizza at home isn't cheap—one Pizzaiolo will cost you nearly $800. But the high price tag may be worth it to pizza-lovers looking to break their takeout addiction. According to one recent survey, the average American spends $2443 a year on takeout and restaurant meals.

You can order the Pizzaiolo online or find it at William Sonoma.