James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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Testing the Ooni Volt Indoor Pizza Oven
🕑 Added 2025-07-25 09:26:43 +0000 UTCTonight—Friday, July 25th—is the night of Tasting Notes, my live multi-sensory stage show produced in Seattle with the members of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, along with some of Seattle's best chefs. You can read more about the event and get tickets with a 20% discount at the link right here.
As part of the show, my friend Lee Kindell (founder of Moto Pizza here in Seattle) and I are going to be baking pizzas live on stage. Because Benaroya hall will not allow us to build a large wood fire in the middle of Taper Auditorium, we will be baking using a couple of Ooni Volt pizza ovens, kindly donated for the show by the folks at Ooni.
Ooni claims that they can heat to 850°F, which is hot enough to bake a Neapolitan-style pizza in about two minutes. That said, I'm not the kind of person who likes to fly blind into these things, so I've been testing out the ovens by baking pizzas in them over the course of the last week. Watch the video to see how the pizza ovens fare. (Hint: well.)
You can get them here, if you're interested.
I hope to see you at the show tonight. (And if you've wanted to try Lee's pizza, you'll be able to grab a slice at the end of the show in the lobby, included with your ticket price).
Comments
Erik Naparstek
Ooni volt or home oven with baking steel?
Sheila brennan
The Tasting Notes event was so much fun! I wasn’t sure about the whole multi-sensory approach but it surpassed all my expectations both in the music and the entertainment. Definitely going to next year’s event!
Holly hon
Can the oven be used to cook other things, like steak?
Della Bautista
Hi Kenji, what store brand pizza dough did you use for your demo?
steve miller
I have the Onni #1 that burns wood pellets. It does a great job. Outside only ofcourse.
steve miller
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Martin Bligh
Are you worried about smoke alarms at the venue?
