I’m a restaurant chef with over 10 years of experience at my restaurant, Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston. In this article, I will compare the Camp Chef Italia and the Deco Chef pizza ovens, since I’ve had the chance to use both extensively in my kitchen. I looked closely at their quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and I also conducted a real pizza cooking test to see how long each oven takes to deliver results. If you’d like to know more about the detailed process I follow to test pizza ovens, you can check out my separate article explaining it step by step.
The Camp Chef Italia is a propane-powered pizza oven designed to recreate the performance of a brick oven in a compact, portable format. Meanwhile, the Deco Chef pizza oven is a versatile model that can use wood pellets or charcoal to produce authentic wood-fired flavors in your backyard.
I’ve compared the Camp Chef Italia and the Deco Chef pizza ovens in detail in this article, using my own test results.
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Winner
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Loser
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Our Rating:
4.4
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Our Rating:
3.2
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Pros:
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Pros:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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- Made with stainless steel and has a double-layer ceiling
- Can reach 750°F
- Smooth dome shape
- Thinner metal frame may impact its durability over time
- Requires careful management, especially on windy days
- Propane-only
- Made of stainless steel with decent quality
- Half-circle dome design
- Lightweight and portable
- Lacks premium finishing
- Maintaining a consistent temperature above 550°F can be challenging
- Exclusively powered by hardwood pellets
Lastly, please note that I’ll be using referral links throughout this article. They help tremendously to keep my blog alive. If you find my reviews useful and choose to buy one of these ovens, I’ll earn a small commission at no cost to you—thank you for supporting my work!
Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Quality and Materials
| The Camp Chef Italia Pizza Oven feels sturdier overall, with a stainless steel build and solid rubber-coated feet. Its double-layered ceiling adds extra rigidity and helps with heat retention. The metal is thinner than some premium ovens but still holds up well for regular use. |
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven uses stainless steel and has three layers of insulation, which is impressive at its price point. However, some users report occasional issues with uneven heating and needing more frequent cleaning to maintain performance.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Temperature Control
| Camp Chef Italia offers reliable, precise temperature control through Micro-Adjust Valves. Once the oven is preheated, the temperature remains stable, and the built-in thermometer is easy to read. You can adjust heat quickly without much fuss. |
Deco Chef has a front knob for adjusting the flame, but maintaining consistently high temperatures (especially above 550°F) can be challenging. While it can reach up to 950°F, fluctuations are common during longer cooks.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Shape
| Camp Chef Italia’s smooth dome shape is excellent for even airflow and consistent baking results. The low roof helps concentrate heat around the pizza stone. |
Deco Chef also uses a half-dome shape that helps create an even bake. However, its smaller opening can make maneuvering larger pizzas a little tricky, especially when rotating them mid-cook.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: First-Time Usage Impressions
| Camp Chef Italia was easy to assemble in about 30 minutes, with clear instructions and no special tools needed. It felt solid and ready for serious cooking right away. |
Deco Chef was also straightforward to assemble and included nice accessories like a pizza peel and scraper. It felt lighter and more portable but didn’t seem quite as robust as Camp Chef Italia.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Power Source
| The Camp Chef Italia runs on propane, eliminating the need for constant refueling. It’s great if you prefer clean, consistent heat without dealing with wood pellets. |
Deco Chef relies on hardwood pellets or lump charcoal. This gives pizzas a wood-fired flavor but requires frequent refilling and monitoring the burn rate, especially in longer sessions.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Size
| Camp Chef Italia has a cooking area large enough for most 12-inch pizzas, though the low dome can limit taller dishes. It weighs about 47 lbs, making it fairly portable for a propane oven. |
Deco Chef is compact and lighter overall, which is helpful for portability. However, its cooking area is smaller, so you may need to bake in batches when feeding a crowd.
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Camp Chef Italia VS Deco Chef: Ease of Cleaning
| The Camp Chef Italia is easy to clean: run it hot for 15 minutes to burn off residue, then scrape the stone and wipe down the exterior. The design makes it simple to maintain. |
Deco Chef also cleans up easily thanks to its removable fuel tray and drip tray. Still, the pellet ash requires regular emptying, and the interior may need more frequent brushing to keep it clean.
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Pizza Cooking Test
To see how these ovens performed side by side, I tested them with a classic Margherita pizza using my standard homemade dough and fresh toppings. The Camp Chef Italia Pizza Oven took about 30 minutes to reach 700°F. Once the stone was fully heated, the pizza cooked in roughly 8 minutes. The crust came out evenly browned with a light crispness, while the cheese melted perfectly without burning. The flavor was clean and balanced, though it didn’t have the same wood-fired smokiness as traditional ovens.
In comparison, the Deco Chef Pizza Oven heated up a bit faster, reaching about 900°F in 20 minutes. When I placed the pizza inside, it cooked in approximately 90 seconds. The crust developed a beautiful charred edge with a noticeable smoky aroma from the hardwood pellets. However, the bottom browned more quickly than the top, so I had to rotate the pizza once or twice to get even cooking. The taste was excellent, rustic, and very close to a wood-fired pizzeria result, though it required more attention throughout the bake.
Overall, both ovens delivered delicious results, but I found the Camp Chef Italia slightly easier to control and more forgiving for longer cooks.
How We Tested
To evaluate the Camp Chef Italia and Deco Chef pizza ovens fairly, I followed the same preparation and cooking process for each. I set both ovens up on a flat outdoor surface and preheated them to their recommended maximum temperatures, using an infrared thermometer to confirm that the stones were properly heated. For each oven, I prepared fresh Margherita pizzas with the same dough thickness and toppings to keep the test consistent. I timed how long it took each oven to reach cooking temperature and how long it took the pizzas to bake fully. While cooking, I observed how evenly the crust browned, how well the cheese melted, and how the overall texture developed. I also paid attention to how easy each oven was to operate during the test, including loading the pizza, rotating it as needed, and removing it safely. After baking, I tasted each pizza to compare flavor, crust texture, and doneness.
Conclusion
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Winner
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Loser
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Our Rating:
4.4
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Our Rating:
3.2
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|
Pros:
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Pros:
|
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
- Made with stainless steel and has a double-layer ceiling
- Can reach 750°F
- Smooth dome shape
- Thinner metal frame may impact its durability over time
- Requires careful management, especially on windy days
- Propane-only
- Made of stainless steel with decent quality
- Half-circle dome design
- Lightweight and portable
- Lacks premium finishing
- Maintaining a consistent temperature above 550°F can be challenging
- Exclusively powered by hardwood pellets
It’s your choice whether the Camp Chef Italia or the Deco Chef pizza oven is the better fit for your cooking style and budget. Both ovens offer unique strengths and can deliver excellent results when used properly. If you decide to buy one, I’d highly appreciate you using my referral links for purchasing. I’ll make a small commission at no cost to you, which helps me keep creating detailed reviews like this. Here is the link for the Camp Chef Italia and here is the link for the Deco Chef.