As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of hands-on experience at my kitchen at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I’ve tested dozens of pizza ovens to see how they perform under real culinary pressure. In this comparison, I’ll walk you through how DeliVita and Deco Chef stack up after using both in my professional environment. I evaluated them based on 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 it takes each oven to make a proper Margherita. If you’re curious about my full testing process, you can check it out in a separate article I’ve published.
The DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven is a premium, hand-crafted oven made in the UK that brings style, power, and authentic wood-fired flavor in a compact design.
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven is a popular budget-friendly option that delivers solid performance and versatility for those just starting with outdoor pizza making.
In this article, I’ve provided a detailed comparison of DeliVita and Deco Chef based on my hands-on tests.
Just a quick note: I use referral links in this article that help keep my blog alive. If you decide to buy through one of them, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you—and I truly appreciate your support.
DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Quality and Materials
| The DeliVita oven is handcrafted in Yorkshire using fiberglass, refractory stone, and stainless steel. It feels premium and built to last. |
The Deco Chef pizza oven is made from stainless steel with triple insulation. It’s durable for its price but doesn’t match DeliVita’s artisanal build.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Temperature Control
| With the DeliVita, temperature is controlled manually by adjusting wood, giving more authentic, hands-on control. |
The Deco Chef oven features a front knob and a built-in thermometer, which simplifies temperature monitoring but isn’t always accurate.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Shape
| The DeliVita has a classic dome-shaped clay interior that ensures even heat distribution and professional baking results. |
The Deco Chef oven uses a half-dome shape that works fine for small pizzas but doesn’t circulate heat as evenly as the DeliVita’s dome.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The DeliVita came ready to use out of the box—no setup needed. It’s ideal for those who want to get started right away. |
The Deco Chef required basic assembly, like attaching the handle and pellet tray. It’s not hard, but DeliVita was simpler.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Power Source
| The DeliVita is a pure wood-fired oven, providing that signature smoky flavor and high heat for perfect Neapolitan-style pizza. |
The Deco Chef pizza oven runs on hardwood pellets, which are convenient but require frequent refueling and offer a less intense wood-fired flavor.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Size
| The DeliVita is compact yet powerful, handling up to 12″ pizzas with ease and weighing about 66 lbs. |
The Deco Chef is lighter and more portable, great for camping or small patios, but its cooking space is smaller than the DeliVita.
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DeliVita VS Deco Chef: Ease of Cleaning
| With DeliVita, cleanup is easy using the long-handled tools. The build keeps ash and soot contained. |
The Deco Chef is also easy to clean thanks to its removable trays, but the stainless steel shows smudges more readily than the DeliVita’s finish.
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Pizza Cooking Test: DeliVita vs Deco Chef
To properly evaluate both the DeliVita and Deco Chef pizza ovens, I ran a Margherita pizza test to see how quickly each oven heated up, how fast the pizza cooked, and—most importantly—how it tasted.
The DeliVita wood-fired oven took around 25 minutes to preheat to its peak temperature of 550°C (1022°F). Thanks to its clay interior and fiberglass outer shell, it retained heat impressively well. Once fully preheated, I slid a freshly prepared Margherita pizza onto the hot stone surface. It cooked in just 90 seconds, with minimal rotation needed. The result was outstanding: a beautifully blistered crust, slightly charred in all the right places, and a chewy center with a deep, wood-fired flavor. The mozzarella was perfectly melted, and the tomato sauce caramelized ever so slightly from the intense heat. It tasted like a true Neapolitan pizza straight from a professional oven.
The Deco Chef pizza oven heated up a little faster, reaching its advertised 950°F (510°C) in about 20 minutes. However, because of its thinner build and less robust insulation compared to the DeliVita, I had to keep a close eye on the fire and frequently top up the hardwood pellets. The pizza cooked in about 60 to 90 seconds, similar to the DeliVita, but it required more frequent rotation to avoid uneven cooking. The end result was still a solid Margherita pizza with a nice smoky crust and good texture, but the bottom was slightly inconsistent due to some cool spots on the stone. Flavor-wise, it was very enjoyable, though the crust lacked the same depth and structure I got from the DeliVita oven.
In summary, both ovens are capable of turning out a delicious Margherita pizza quickly, but the DeliVita oven clearly offers a more balanced, reliable, and authentic wood-fired cooking experience—especially when it comes to crust quality and flavor. The Deco Chef is a strong performer for its price and offers solid results with a bit more hands-on management during cooking.
How We Tested
As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of hands-on experience at my kitchen, Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I brought both the DeliVita and Deco Chef pizza ovens into real-world use—right where it matters most: during actual cooking sessions. I didn’t just skim over the specs; I cooked with them, observed how they performed under pressure, and noted every detail that matters to home cooks and pros alike. I evaluated each oven across key categories like overall build quality, materials used, how efficiently they controlled and retained heat, the effectiveness of their shape for air circulation, and my genuine first-time impressions during unboxing and setup. I also looked at fuel type, portability, and how easy they were to clean after a session. Most importantly, I ran a Margherita pizza cooking test in each oven—tracking preheat times, actual cook time, and, of course, the final taste. If you’re curious about my full pizza oven testing method, I go into much greater detail in a separate article linked on this blog.
Conclusion
Ultimately, whether you choose the DeliVita or the Deco Chef pizza oven comes down to your own cooking style, space, and budget. Both ovens offer great features and can deliver delicious results, but based on my hands-on experience, DeliVita offers a slightly more premium and consistent performance. If you’ve found this comparison helpful and decide to purchase one, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral links—it won’t cost you anything extra, but it helps keep this blog alive and supports the work I do. Here’s the DeliVita referral link and here’s the Deco Chef referral link. Thank you!
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