GameFroze: The Top Frozen Pizza Brands Face Off!
- May 04, 2007 10:17 AM PST
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One of the greatest gaming foods gets the GamePro review treatment! Check out a roundup of the top five frozen pizza brands, as well as an affordable pizza oven!
Shameless self promotion FTW!
Frozen pizzas are the ultimate lazy gamer food. Easier to make than Top Ramen, cheaper than ordering Chinese, and fancier than a plate of Hot Pockets, a fine frozen pizza can come pretty darn close to matching the real deal. The GamePros know this, which is why we've decided to delve into the untapped world of frozen pizza reviews! DaveMayCry, who runs a frozen pizza blog (no joke!) at fropes.com picked up five of the biggest brands, tossed them on our dedicated pizza oven, and gorged the GamePro staff with the unhealthiest week of lunches ever. Our tool of self-destruction? The Presto Pizzazz Pizza Oven, which was also put to the test. Read on to partake in the pizza goodness, or check out our menu below!
Table of Contents
Page 1....Presto Pizzazz Pizza Oven Review
Page 2...Tombstone and Red Baron Pizzas Reviewed!
Page 3....Totinos and Tony's Pizzas Reviewed!
Page 4....DiGornios Pizza Reviewed, A Winner Revealed, and Pizza ProTips!
Review: Presto Pizzazz Pizza Oven
Presto Pizzazz: Also an awesome name for a child.
For even the most strident frozen pizza aficionado, the idea of owning an appliance dedicated solely to heating a pie seems sort of outlandish. What can a heated spinning tray offer that a simple gas stove can't? According to Presto, purveyors of the Pizzazz, plenty. Boasting faster and more energy-efficient heating, the Pizzazz Pizza Oven could be the solution to your pizza-cooking problems, though it definitely takes some getting used to.
The Pizzazz is simple enough to set up. There's the base that consists of a top and bottom heater, with heating controls on the top of the device. The tray slips onto a spindle so that it rests directly on top of the heater, and can accommodate pizzas up to 12 inches wide. Once you set a heating time and method (top only, bottom only, and both), the tray will spin while the heaters cook your frozen, take and bake, or homemade pizzas. When it's done, you life the tray off of the spindle and let the pizza cool. Because the Pizzazz heats the tray entirely, you can only put full, round pizzas on it. It's a shame there's not a toggle that allows you to keep the tray stationary so that you could heat pieces or pizzas of different shape, but you likely have other appliances in your kitchen that can ably handle those tasks.
If you can't handle this, then please never ever prepare any food.
That's not the only complaint we have about the tray. When you finish cooking, the tray is hot to the touch, and a magnet for accident-prone burn victims. Also, the finish on the tray is weak, meaning you can't slice up your pies on it. The largest boast presented by the Pizzazz is the ability to save time over a standard oven, which is slightly dubious. The instructions for the Pizzazz claim the oven has both a shorter cooking time and no need to preheat, but in my experiments,we found that we had to keep pies on longer in order for it to reach an edible state. In the end, the time saved preheating was more or less cancelled out waiting for it to cook. We should also mention that the Pizzazz won't help you better manage your pizza-cooking time, either. In fact,we found spent way more time watching pizzas cooking on the Pizzazz than we'd spend randomly checking on a pizza in the oven.
With the time-saving features of the Pizzazz put in doubt, there's really only one criteria left to consider. Does it make a better pizza? While our first batch of pizzas didn't come out looking too good, we found that tweaking the heating styles and learning to not impulsively take a pizza off early when the cheese started to bubble allowed us to really create pizzas in ways that aren't as easy in ovens. Overdone toppings with a soft crust? It's possible. Crispy crust with barely melted cheese? Just tweak the settings and you can have it your way. Is it worth $50? If you're the kind who puts frozen pizzas on your shopping list right after milk and bread, then yes. If you only toss a frozen pizza on rarely, this will probably be used less than your Juicemaster.
