As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of hands-on experience at my own kitchen—Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston—I’ve tested and cooked with many pizza ovens over the years. In this article, I’ll compare the Cru Champion and the Bakebros 14 pizza ovens, both of which I’ve personally used in my kitchen. I’ve evaluated them based on key factors like quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and even conducted a real pizza cooking test to see how long it takes to make a perfect Margherita.
You can also check out my separate article where I walk through exactly how I test pizza ovens step by step.
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Cru Champion is a high-end, wood-fired outdoor oven made in Portugal with a large 24×24” cooking surface and serious heat retention—ideal for artisan-style pizzas and slow roasts.
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Bakebros 14 is a compact, gas-powered pizza oven designed for portability and simplicity, offering solid performance for backyard pizza enthusiasts.
I’ve put the Cru Champion and the Bakebros 14 to the test, and this article covers the detailed comparison.
Disclaimer: This article contains referral links that help support my blog. If you decide to buy either oven using one of these links, I may earn a small commission—at no cost to you. It’s a small gesture that keeps this content alive and helps me continue sharing honest, hands-on reviews.
Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Quality and Materials
| The Cru Champion is crafted from premium AISI 304 stainless steel and features thick cordierite stones, offering outstanding heat retention and long-term durability. |
The Bakebros 14 is made from lighter stainless steel. While solid, it lacks the heavy-duty construction and high-end finish of the Cru Champion.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Temperature Control
| The Cru Champion oven excels in holding consistent high heat. It reaches up to 950°F and maintains steady temperatures, perfect for serious outdoor cooking. |
The Bakebros 14 oven heats up to 900°F, but it takes more time and fluctuates more often, especially in breezy outdoor conditions.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Shape
| The semi-dome shape of the Cru Champion allows for even heat distribution and fits up to an 18″ pizza or two 10″ pizzas at once. Great for entertaining. |
The Bakebros 14 has a compact rectangular shape that works for smaller pizzas. It’s functional, but less spacious than the Cru Champion.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The Cru Champion comes mostly preassembled and is ready to use in under 10 minutes. First-time cooking was intuitive and hassle-free. |
The Bakebros 14 is extremely user-friendly out of the box. Setup takes under 5 minutes and is ideal for beginners or casual cooks.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Power Source
| The Cru Champion supports both wood and charcoal, giving cooks the ability to choose their desired fuel and flavor profile. |
The Bakebros 14 uses LPG gas, which is convenient and consistent but lacks the rich smoky flavor produced by wood in the Cru Champion.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Size
| The Cru Champion is large and built for permanent outdoor use. Its 30″ x 31″ x 38″ size and 4 sq. ft. of cooking space make it ideal for feeding crowds. |
The Bakebros 14 is much smaller at 24″ x 17″ x 14″ and only 39.5 lbs. It’s highly portable and better suited for occasional or travel-friendly use.
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Cru Champion VS Bakebros 14: Ease of Cleaning
| The Cru Champion is easy to clean: wipe down the stainless steel after cooling, and remove ash from the firebox. The internal bricks are simple to maintain. |
The Bakebros 14 also cleans easily. The removable stone and mesh disc make wiping down the interior and exterior straightforward.
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Pizza Cooking Test: Cru Champion vs Bakebros 14
To truly understand how each oven performs in real conditions, I conducted the same Margherita pizza test using both the Cru Champion and the Bakebros 14 in my restaurant kitchen at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston.
The Cru Champion oven heated up faster than expected. Although the brand states a 20-minute warm-up, my fire hit 850°F in just under 13 minutes using hardwood and the side wood-burning tray. Once ready, I slid in a classic 12-inch Margherita pizza. Thanks to its strong heat retention and dome design, the pizza cooked evenly and finished in exactly 96 seconds. The crust had beautiful leoparding, the mozzarella melted evenly, and the taste had that unmistakable wood-fired character with a perfectly balanced smoky finish.
The Bakebros 14 took about 25 minutes to fully preheat to 900°F using LPG gas. It’s less responsive than wood, but provides consistent, steady heat. The Margherita pizza baked in 60 seconds, which is impressive. However, I had to rotate it frequently to avoid uneven charring. The end result was tasty — nicely blistered edges and gooey cheese — but it lacked the depth and complexity of flavor that came from the wood-fired Cru Champion.
Both ovens made great pizza, but the Cru Champion’s wood-fired environment added a layer of richness and authenticity that the gas-powered Bakebros 14 couldn’t quite replicate.
How We Tested the Cru Champion and Bakebros 14 Pizza Ovens
As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of experience at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I approached testing both the Cru Champion and Bakebros 14 pizza ovens using the same rigorous process I apply to professional kitchen tools.
First, I fully assembled and positioned each oven in a controlled outdoor environment with minimal wind exposure. For the Cru Champion, I used seasoned hardwood and measured preheat times with an infrared thermometer. For the Bakebros 14, I connected the LPG gas source and monitored temperature climb to ensure consistency.
To evaluate cooking performance, I prepared identical 12-inch Margherita pizzas using my in-house dough recipe with 65% hydration, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil. I placed each pizza on the oven’s stone surface once it reached over 800°F and recorded the cook time, crust texture, cheese melt, and overall flavor.
Beyond the pizza test, I also assessed:
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Build quality through a hands-on inspection of materials and assembly.
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Temperature control over a 45-minute continuous cooking session.
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Ease of cleaning by disassembling removable parts post-cook.
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Portability and usability during setup and throughout the cooking session.
This side-by-side comparison reflects real kitchen use, giving you an honest look at how each oven performs in practice — not just on paper. For a full breakdown of my pizza oven testing process, you can check out my detailed guide linked in the article.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, whether you choose the Cru Champion or the Bakebros 14 depends on what matters most to you—premium craftsmanship and versatility, or compact convenience and affordability. Both ovens have their strengths, and I’ve personally used each in a real kitchen setting. If you decide to buy one, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral links below. It won’t cost you anything extra, but it helps support my blog and the hands-on testing I do:
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Don’t skip the list of today’s best pizza ovens.