The Pizza Party Ardore Test
- Jonas Matter
- 21. Apr. 2024
- 6 Min. Lesezeit
Aktualisiert: 25. Apr. 2024
Hardly any other pizza oven causes as much of a stir on the internet as the Ardore and Emozione models from the Tuscan manufacturer Pizzaparty. Beautiful Italian design meets the power of a gas burner. Find out how the Pizzaparty Ardore fares in the pizzaschaufel.ch test in this review.
Unboxing
The Ardore is delivered in an inconspicuous box via post and without a pallet (unlike the Emozione, which comes on a pallet due to its size). The box doesn't even tell us the name of the oven.
Inside, Genotema Surl. (the company behind the Pizzaparty brand) has done away with almost all plastic - instead, the oven is optimally padded with folded cardboard. This is a real achievement for a relatively small manufacturer, which doesn't have to hide behind industry giant Ooni ( and whose packaging we always praise to the skies ) .
The legs, which still have to be screwed onto the oven, are located on the side and the oven itself can be found under the padded cardboard.
With a pull on the strap, you can lift the surprisingly light (18.4 kilograms) oven out of its box.
Inside the oven there are screws for the legs, the knob for the regulator, the instructions and - if you buy the oven from us - also a hose directly with a Swiss gas pressure regulator.
The correct Swiss gas pressure regulator - which you will of course receive from us as standard from stock - looks like this;
If you buy the oven directly from Pizzaparty or one of our competitors, you will receive the following gas pressure regulator:
On the left you can see the Italian gas pressure regulator, which of course does not fit Swiss gas bottles, and on the right you can see the adapter that is included and can be screwed on. Apart from the fact that the sale of such gas pressure regulators with adapters is prohibited in Switzerland according to the EKAS regulation , the Italian gas pressure regulator cannot be connected tightly to a Swiss composite gas bottle. As the industrial regulator is much too large, you cannot turn it (the handles of the bottles are in the way) and as you are using an adapter, you cannot turn the adapter alone, because every turn in the wrong direction detaches the adapter from the regulator.
It could be so simple.
If you don't want to die or be seriously injured in a gas explosion, it's worth buying from pizzaschaufel.ch - because we are the only ones who sell the versions of the Pizzaparty gas ovens that are specially manufactured for us and approved in Switzerland.
We no longer take the liberty of answering inquiries regarding conversions for CH gas bottles - the ovens are correctly produced for us directly in Italy and unfortunately we cannot correct the mistakes of dubious competitors.
Next comes the assembly. Inserting the two Biscotto stones into the Pizzaparty Ardore is a bit tricky and requires a certain amount of tact - the demonstration video which is linked to the QR code on the instructions also helps.
The two biscotto plates must be set up like a tent (the two smooth edges against each other and the A-side upwards) - then you can press them down by applying pressure to the two middle edges. The inner walls will press outwards slightly, which is absolutely normal and correct - this means the biscottos stay firmly in the oven and cannot fall out.
There is no other way to put the 3cm thick biscottos in the oven.
After the oven is assembled and connected to the gas, the temperature test continues.
Heating up
Pizzaparty ovens do not have piezo ignition, so we provide you with a lighter with each oven.
Rodrigo from the manufacturer Genotema explains this by saying that piezo ignitions break too often and that what is not installed cannot break (of course he drove up to our meeting in Tuscany in a Dacia - very friendly - so the motto "what is not installed does not break" seems to apply to the whole company). Personally, we don't think the lack of piezo ignition is a big deal, but we do find the gas flow control, which has no stop at the top or bottom, a little less practical. In terms of safety, this is not a big deal, as the stoves have a thermal fuse that shuts off the gas flow if there is no flame.
UPDATE According to customer comments, Pizzaparty has now added an upper and lower limit to the controller, which we very much welcome.
The black rivet on the stove is the orientation point. A line on the rivet means no gas flow, a large flame on the rivet means maximum gas flow and a small flame on the rivet means minimum gas flow. The thermal fuse is bypassed to start the stove by pressing the control.
The oven heats up relatively quickly - at least in the version we sell with more gas pressure.
We took a first measurement after 20 minutes at maximum flame.
The Ardore delivers very impressive measurements here. Despite its large opening and the thick biscotto (3cm), it would be ready to take the first pizza after just 20 minutes.
Of course, we wanted to know more about it and waited another 10 minutes, still with the flames on at full speed.
The temperature would actually rise a little over time if the flame remained at full, but it is questionable whether this is necessary. In the middle of the oven we reached a maximum of around 510-520°C, while in the rear area the maximum of our thermometer of 550° could be reached.
Due to the beautiful flame transfer, the right side is only about 30° less hot than the left, which is amazing considering the large opening.
Backtest
This time, we will of course bake a pizza in the oven so that we can give our final assessment of the Pizzaparty Ardore. However, since the oven has won a permanent place in our pizza hearts (just like the Macte Voyager, which is still in use) and we have been using it regularly for several months, this time we will even bake several pizzas.
To do something a little out of the ordinary, let’s start with a Vegetariana.
After a short baking time of about 90 seconds, the pizza was already baked and this is what it looked like:
What we really liked about baking was the sheer amount of space that the Pizzaparty Ardore offers inside. We had to investigate this and took measurements.
A Pizzaparty Ardore is 46cm wide on the outside, an Ooni Koda 16 58cm. If you think that the baking surface in the Koda 16 is also 12cm wider, you are in for a surprise.
The baking surface in the Ardore is 40cm wide, with the edges protruding by 1.5cm each. The baking surface (without the maneuvering area in the front area) in the Koda 16 is 42cm wide. Although the Koda 12 is 12cm wider, the baking surface only increases by 2cm. You could also say that you don't need much more than 42cm of baking surface for a pizza, which is of course true - but the compact dimensions in which the Ardore accommodates the 40cm baking surface are very impressive.
So how does Pizzaparty achieve so much maneuverability in such a small oven?
On the one hand, Pizzaparty uses very high-quality insulation materials, which allows for thin walls, and the burner is slightly offset upwards, thus freeing up more space on the baking surface.
Further baking results in our tests were as follows:
PS: Don't forget to clean the biscotto between pizzas ;)
Conclusion The Pizzaparty Ardore is unrivalled - with incredibly small dimensions and yet plenty of baking space, no other can really hold a candle to it at the moment. Every pizza that came out of our Ardore was great and the oven managed to trigger the much-talked-about wow effect despite having already tested X ovens, so the Ardore will have an undisputed permanent place in the oven team.
We found the placement of the biscottos in the oven a little tricky, but luckily you only have to install them once. We would also like the gas flow regulator to have a limiter at the top and bottom ( update : this is now the case) to prevent the flame from accidentally going out. However, with a little practice, this will no longer happen.
The best thing to do is to get started right away and start collecting practice yourself. With the code BLOG20 you can get it for CHF 20 less, whether with Ardore or Emozione.