As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of experience at my own kitchen—Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston—I’ve had the chance to work with and test a wide range of pizza ovens. In this article, I’m comparing two popular outdoor models I’ve personally used: the Camp Chef Italia and the Cru Oven Model 32.
I evaluated them side by side in a professional setting, focusing on key areas like quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and of course, a real pizza cooking test to see how long it takes to bake a perfect Margherita. If you’re interested in more technical detail, you can check out my separate article on how I test pizza ovens in my kitchen.
The Camp Chef Italia is a propane-powered oven designed to mimic the performance of traditional brick ovens, offering a user-friendly experience with decent heat retention and consistent cooking.
The Cru Oven Model 32, on the other hand, is a sleek wood-fired oven built in Portugal, known for its high temperatures, open-fire cooking experience, and artisanal design that blends functionality with style.
I tested both the Camp Chef Italia and the Cru Oven Model 32 and shared a detailed comparison in this article.
Just a heads-up: this article includes referral links that help tremendously in keeping my blog alive. If you decide to purchase either of these ovens using the links I provide, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you.
Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Quality and Materials
| The Camp Chef Italia is made of stainless steel with a double-layered ceiling and cordierite stone. Though the metal is somewhat thin, the build feels durable and reliable. |
The Cru Oven Model 32 is crafted in Portugal with dual-layer 304 stainless steel, ceramic fiber insulation, and cordierite stones. Build quality is excellent, but some users reported insulation issues.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Temperature Control
| Camp Chef Italia features micro-adjust valves for precise gas control. It recovers heat quickly and reaches 700°F+ with some patience. |
The Cru Oven Model 32 reaches high temperatures (800–900°F), but takes about 40 minutes to preheat. Maintaining steady heat between pizzas can be tricky without constant monitoring.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Shape
| Camp Chef Italia’s dome-shaped ceiling circulates heat evenly. The low opening limits tall dishes but benefits pizza baking. |
Cru Oven Model 32 has a barrel-style dome with a wide opening and removable top. It’s great for airflow but more prone to heat loss.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The Camp Chef Italia was easy to assemble in under 30 minutes. First bake required extra preheat time, but overall it was intuitive and straightforward. |
The Cru Oven Model 32 was easy to set up, but the heat-up took longer than claimed. Cooking was smooth after the initial wait, with even results.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Power Source
| Camp Chef Italia runs on propane, making it low-maintenance and quick to light. No smoky flavor, but consistent and hassle-free. |
Cru Oven Model 32 uses wood (or charcoal), offering authentic smoky flavor. More hands-on, and fire management is needed throughout the cook.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Size
| Camp Chef Italia is compact and portable, though the low dome makes rotating larger pizzas a bit tricky. |
Cru Oven Model 32 offers more internal space, great for multiple dishes or large pizzas, but is heavier and bulkier to move.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Cru Oven Model 32: Ease of Cleaning
| Cleaning the Camp Chef Italia is simple: just burn off residue and scrape the stone, then wipe the outer shell. |
Cru Oven Model 32 stands out with its removable dome. Cleaning the interior and stones is quick and thorough, though ashes must be manually removed.
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Pizza Cooking Test: Camp Chef Italia vs Cru Oven Model 32
In my real-world kitchen test, the Camp Chef Italia took around 30 to 40 minutes to fully preheat. Although the manual suggests 15 minutes, I found that it required a bit more time to reach optimal baking temperature — around 700°F on the stone. Once it was hot, I slid in a homemade Margherita pizza using fresh dough and classic toppings.
The Camp Chef oven cooked the pizza in about 7 to 9 minutes, resulting in a beautifully crisp crust and evenly melted mozzarella. The texture was satisfying, with a nice chew and light charring on the bottom — close to what you’d get from a traditional pizzeria, minus the smoky flavor of wood. For a gas-powered oven, it performed impressively well and gave me consistent results in multiple rounds.
The Cru Oven Model 32 needed a longer warm-up time — about 40 to 45 minutes to reach 850–900°F, which is ideal for Neapolitan-style pizzas. Once preheated, I baked the same Margherita pizza and it was done in a blazing 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
The result was delicious: light, airy crust with a distinct wood-fired smokiness that gas ovens can’t replicate. The edges had the classic leopard spotting, and the flavor had a slightly rustic, fire-kissed finish. However, I had to rotate the pizza frequently to avoid uneven baking due to the open design, which loses heat quickly between bakes.
Both ovens produced excellent pizzas, but in a different style. The Camp Chef Italia delivered reliable, evenly cooked results with minimal effort — perfect for home cooks who want great pizza without managing a fire. The Cru Oven Model 32 offered that authentic wood-fired flavor and faster cooking, but demanded more attention and longer prep.
If you’re after hands-on, artisanal results, the Cru Oven might be your pick. If you want consistent, delicious pizzas with less hassle, the Camp Chef Italia is the clear winner in my kitchen.
How We Tested
As a restaurant chef with over a decade of experience at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I tested both the Camp Chef Italia and the Cru Oven Model 32 directly in my kitchen under real cooking conditions.
For each oven, I used the same homemade Margherita pizza recipe — with fresh dough, San Marzano-style sauce, mozzarella, and basil — to ensure a fair comparison. I carefully observed how long it took each oven to preheat, using an infrared thermometer to measure the stone temperature at the center. Once the ovens were ready, I timed the cook for each pizza and paid close attention to how evenly the crust baked, how the cheese melted, and whether the toppings stayed moist or dried out.
Taste and texture were critical in my evaluation. I looked for a crisp, well-cooked crust, proper leoparding, and balanced flavor — especially whether the oven added anything distinctive, like a smoky note or a better chew. I also factored in how quickly each oven recovered heat between bakes, how intuitive the temperature controls felt, and how easy the cleanup process was after a long session.
My goal was to test these ovens the way a serious home cook or a food professional would use them — from unboxing and setup all the way through cooking and cleaning. If you’re curious about the complete methodology I use to test pizza ovens in more depth, I’ve broken it down in a separate article.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, whether you go with the Camp Chef Italia or the Cru Oven Model 32 depends on what kind of pizza experience you’re after. Both ovens offer great performance in their own ways, and I’ve personally enjoyed using each of them. But if you decide to purchase one, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral links below — it helps support this blog at no extra cost to you. I earn a small commission which goes a long way in keeping my reviews honest and independent.
- Here’s the link for the Camp Chef Italia
- And here’s the link for the Cru Oven Model 32
Thank you for supporting my work — and happy pizza making!
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