Most people buy a pizza oven for one reason — to make amazing pizza at home. And yes, the ChefPro pizza ovens do that brilliantly. But here's something that surprises most new owners: a pizza oven is one of the most versatile outdoor cooking tools you can own.
The intense heat, the wood fired flavour, the radiant stone cooking surface — these elements combine to produce incredible results across a huge range of foods. Once you start experimenting you'll wonder how you ever cooked without one.
Here are 10 things you probably didn't know you could cook in your ChefPro pizza oven.
1. Flatbreads & Wraps
Flatbreads cook in under 60 seconds in a pizza oven and the results are extraordinary. The intense heat creates perfect char spots and a crispy exterior with a soft chewy centre that you simply cannot achieve in a conventional oven. Top with smoked salmon and cream cheese, roasted vegetables and hummus, or pulled lamb and tzatziki for stunning entertaining dishes.
Both the ChefPro 12" Gas Pizza Oven and the 13" Wood Pellet Pizza Oven handle flatbreads perfectly — the gas oven gives consistent results every time while the wood pellet oven adds a beautiful smoky depth to the flatbread flavour.
2. Focaccia
Wood fired focaccia is a revelation. The high heat of the pizza oven creates a crispy golden crust on the outside while keeping the inside incredibly soft and airy. Topped with rosemary, sea salt and good quality olive oil it's one of the simplest and most impressive things you can make. Cook at slightly lower temperature than pizza — around 300-350°C — for 3-4 minutes.
3. Garlic Bread
The quickest and most crowd-pleasing use of your pizza oven outside of actual pizza. A good sourdough loaf split in half, loaded with garlic butter and herbs, slides into the oven and is ready in 90 seconds. The crust becomes perfectly charred and crispy while the butter soaks into the bread and the garlic caramelises beautifully. This alone is worth owning a pizza oven for.
4. Roasted Vegetables
Vegetables roasted in a pizza oven at high heat are completely different to anything you've had from a conventional oven. The intense radiant heat caramelises the natural sugars in vegetables incredibly quickly, creating deep charring on the outside while keeping the inside perfectly tender. Capsicums, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, corn and broccolini all work beautifully.
Use a small cast iron pan or oven-safe dish and cook at 350-400°C for 3-5 minutes depending on the vegetable. Finish with good olive oil, lemon and fresh herbs.
5. Steak
This might surprise you but a pizza oven is one of the best tools for cooking steak. The intense heat sears the outside of the steak almost instantly, creating an incredible crust while keeping the inside perfectly medium-rare. Use a cast iron skillet preheated in the oven, add your steak and cook for 60-90 seconds per side at maximum temperature.
The result is a steakhouse-quality sear that is virtually impossible to achieve on a conventional BBQ or stovetop. This works particularly well in the ChefPro 13" Wood Pellet Oven where the wood smoke adds an incredible layer of flavour to the crust.
6. Prawns & Seafood
Prawns, scallops and fish cook incredibly quickly in a pizza oven and the results are spectacular. The high heat chars the outside while keeping the inside perfectly moist and juicy. Garlic butter prawns in a cast iron pan take less than 2 minutes at 400°C and are an absolute showstopper for entertaining. Whole fish wrapped in foil with lemon and herbs take around 8-10 minutes and come out perfectly flaky every time.
7. Calzone
A calzone is essentially a folded pizza — all the same dough and fillings but sealed inside and cooked whole. The pizza oven handles calzone perfectly, cooking the outside to a deep golden brown while the filling becomes molten and delicious inside. Cook at slightly lower temperature than pizza — around 300°C — for 3-4 minutes turning halfway through.
8. Wood Fired Eggs
Eggs baked in a cast iron pan in a pizza oven are unlike anything you've had before. Shakshouka — eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce — cooks in under 3 minutes in a pizza oven at 300°C. The sauce bubbles and reduces at the edges while the eggs set perfectly. Serve straight from the pan with warm flatbread cooked in the same oven for an incredible brunch dish.
9. Desserts
Pizza ovens are not just for savoury food. Nutella and banana calzone is a favourite — sweet dough filled with Nutella and sliced banana, cooked until golden and served with a dusting of icing sugar. Cinnamon and sugar flatbreads take 60 seconds and are a huge hit with kids. Fruit crisps and crumbles in cast iron pans cook beautifully in 5-6 minutes with incredible caramelised tops.
10. Smash Burgers
A cast iron skillet preheated in your pizza oven at maximum temperature creates the perfect environment for smash burgers. The extreme heat sears the beef patty almost instantly creating an incredible crust — the hallmark of a great smash burger. The buns can be toasted directly on the stone in 20-30 seconds. The whole process from cold ingredients to finished burger takes under 5 minutes.
Gas vs Wood Pellet — Which Is More Versatile?
Both the ChefPro 12" Auto-Rotating Gas Pizza Oven and the ChefPro 13" Wood Pellet Pizza Oven are incredibly versatile but they each have their strengths:
ChefPro 12" Auto-Rotating Gas Pizza Oven
- Easier temperature control — turn the knob to adjust heat precisely
- Faster preheat — ready to cook in 15-20 minutes
- More consistent results — ideal for beginners and when cooking for a crowd
- Auto-rotating stone — ensures perfectly even cooking without manual turning
- Best for — pizza, flatbreads, garlic bread, calzone, desserts
ChefPro 13" Wood Pellet Pizza Oven
- Authentic wood fired flavour — the smoke from the pellets infuses into everything you cook
- Higher maximum temperature — reaches up to 500°C for the most intense sear
- More cooking variety — different wood pellets create different flavour profiles
- Best for — steak, seafood, smash burgers, flatbreads, anything where smoke flavour is a bonus
Tips for Cooking Beyond Pizza
- Invest in a cast iron pan — a small cast iron skillet or dish is the most useful accessory for cooking non-pizza food in your pizza oven. It handles the extreme heat and retains it perfectly.
- Lower the temperature for longer cooks — not everything needs maximum heat. For thicker items reduce to 250-300°C and cook for longer.
- Watch your food closely — at pizza oven temperatures things cook very fast. Never walk away from the oven while food is inside.
- Use your pizza peel for everything — the peel is useful for sliding pans in and out of the oven safely. Keep it handy at all times.
- Experiment with wood pellets — in the wood pellet oven try different pellet types to find flavour combinations you love. Hickory with steak, apple with chicken, cherry with salmon.
Ready to Cook Beyond Pizza?
The ChefPro pizza ovens are two of the most versatile outdoor cooking tools available in NZ. Whether you choose the convenience of the gas model or the authentic flavour of the wood pellet oven — or both — you'll find yourself using it for far more than just pizza nights.
Shop the ChefPro 12" Auto-Rotating Gas Pizza Oven →
Shop the ChefPro 13" Wood Pellet Pizza Oven →
Have you cooked something unexpected in your ChefPro pizza oven? Tag us on Instagram @chefpronz — we love seeing what our customers create.