3’s top tech chef cooks up another big plate of helpfulness

Crank the flames too high and it’ll be more like ‘pepperohnonoNO!’

ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN KELLY

Q Guru, my pizza is awful!

BRIAN GREENE, MILTON KEYNES

A Perhaps the problem isn’t so much your pizza but your oven? You could try switching out your dough recipe for the excellent River Cottage one that you can find online, but it’s more likely it’s that pathetic excuse for a hot box that’s doing you dirty. You need a hot thing that goes really hot, and if yours can only reach a nominal 200 or 220 degrees (which is likely to be a bit less than that in practice) you’re not going to get the best out of your pizza, fancy stone or not.

Permanent outdoor ovens are impractical, expensive and they’ll annoy your neighbours no end, which makes them an exceptional option in Guru’s eyes. If you don’t share his selfish sensibilities, something like the Ooni Karu 16 (£699) is ideal: it does wood, charcoal or (with the £80 Gas Burner add-on) gas fuel, can reach an oven-shaming 500 degrees, and is apparently the first pizza oven to be recommended for domestic use by those mozzarella-twirling fat cats over at the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. That’s a pizza done in 60 seconds. Heck, you might even be able to use it as a makeshift kiln.

If your oven can only reach 200 or 220 degrees you’re not going to get the best out of your pizza, fancy stone or not