THERMICHEF by Conductive Cooking Square Pizza Steel (3/8" Deluxe Version, 14"x14" Square)

I was born in Naples in 1958, and by the time I was sixteen, I was already working in a small pizzeria near Via dei Tribunali. My first job was preparing dough, cleaning the workbench, and carrying sacks of flour from the storeroom. The owner, a man named Salvatore, had been making pizza since he was a boy. He taught me that the dough needed time, the oven needed respect, and a pizza should never be rushed just because a customer was impatient. By 1981, I was making pizzas myself. I worked six days a week, sometimes twelve hours a day, with flour permanently embedded in the creases of my hands. We made our dough early in the morning, used simple tomato sauce, and kept the ingredients straightforward. I learned to judge a pizza by its smell and the color of its crust rather than constantly checking a clock. Then, in 1990, the war changed everything. I left the life I knew behind and eventually started over somewhere far from Naples. I won’t pretend it was easy. For years, I worked other jobs, but I never stopped making pizza for my family on Sundays. My children grew up knowing that if there was flour on the kitchen counter, something good was coming. The problem was that my home oven never behaved like the ovens I remembered. I could make excellent dough, ferment it for 24 hours, and use good mozzarella, but the bottom crust often lacked the crispness I wanted. I tried baking trays and various other methods. Nothing quite satisfied me. Eventually, I decided to try the Thermichef pizza steel. I preheated my oven to its maximum temperature and gave the steel plenty of time to heat thoroughly. I prepared a batch of dough, stretched it by hand, added crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, and a little basil, and slid the pizza onto the hot surface. When I took it out, I checked the bottom first. Old habits die hard. The crust had developed the browning I had been looking for, and the base was noticeably crisp. The inside remained pleasantly chewy, and the pizza held together properly when I lifted a slice. It wasn’t identical to a pizza baked in a traditional Neapolitan wood-fired oven, but for a home oven, the result was genuinely satisfying. My wife asked why I was standing in the kitchen examining the bottom of a pizza for five minutes. I told her she wouldn’t understand. She has been married to me for forty years. She understood perfectly well. The steel is heavy, so plan where you want to keep it, and allow it to cool completely before handling it. Preheating is essential; don’t expect good results if you put a cold steel into the oven and immediately start baking. After all these years, I have learned that good pizza comes down to ingredients, fermentation, temperature, and patience. This steel helps with one of those things, and it does its job well. Five stars from an old pizza cook. Salvatore would have approved.

Awesome heavy duty pizza steel. Makes great pizza in your home oven. Would recommend for home made pizza. Great for up to 16 inch pizzas. Heavy so make sure to store appropriately.

If you want to make NY style pizza in your home oven, the Thermichef pizza steel is for you - look at that crust - you can't get this with a pizza stone! Just be sure to measure the depth and width of your oven before you select a size. My oven just barely accommodates the 16" X 16" steel

I got this steel after seeing The Dough Guy on YouTube, who sells his own branded steels. It is truly a huge game changer. Previously I had a stone, and my crust would always flop. I cannot believe how good homemade pizza can be. The Dough Guy has a lot of content on YouTube as far as had to achieve a good homemade pizza on the steel (including a really great dough recipe), I recommend watching that. The steel is really heavy and takes occasional maintenance, but the hassle is completely worth it for the quality of homemade pizza we have now. I also use it to make sourdough ciabatta and stromboli, which comes out perfect every time.

Crisps the bottom of the pizza wonderfully, and seasoning adheres to the steel quite securely! It is pretty heavy and awkward though. Also, the edges aren't bevelled like I think they should be. Which makes it kind of rough around the edges. It also holds onto heat extremely well. (Kind of the point) But I'm finding it to be overkill, because I don't often throw "pizza parties" with people over. The 1/4in thick one would likely have suited me just fine for heat retention/transference and due to it being thinner and lighter, would rebound quickly anyway. In hindsight, I think I shouldve went with the 1/4 inch thick model. Maybe I will gift this one, and get the 1/4in thick model in the future! We'll see! If you love pizza, this is a fantastic kitchen tool and will improve the crisp of your home made pies a lot! (Works for breads too) It was great, but wasn't IDEAL for me, so it gets a 3 star. But it could be a 4 or 5 for you, so give it a try!