As one of the most beloved foods across the country, pizza remains a staple in both our diets and conversations. There's a pizzeria for nearly every palate, stimulating the timeless debates of thin-crust versus thick-crust and whether pineapple is an acceptable topping. If you're ready to open a pizzeria, this pizza shop equipment list outlines the supplies you need to start serving delicious pizzas to your loyal customers. For a quick reference, check out our printable pizza shop equipment checklist.
Pizza Ovens
Pizza Dough Prep
Pizza Ingredients
Pizza Making Tools
Pizza Bakeware
Pizza Refrigeration
Pizza Takeout and Delivery Supplies
1. Pizza Ovens
When choosing equipment, pizza ovens are one of the first things to consider. The right pizza oven is as crucial to your pizza's signature taste as your dough or toppings because the types of pizza ovens you choose determine the styles of pizza you can create. Each oven produces a different style and flavor of pizza, such as Chicago deep dish or New York thin crust. Additionally, the size of your pizza shop and your customer base also factor into choosing the right pizza oven. Make sure you know how much space is available in your kitchen and roughly how many orders your shop might fill before deciding which oven to purchase. You can also consider an outdoor pizza oven if you have space for an outdoor kitchen.
Below, we've included a list of the different types of pizza ovens and a brief overview of their benefits.
Brick pizza oven: Though it requires more skill to use and maintain, a brick oven is the traditional way of baking your pizza and gives it a smoky, wood fired taste.
Conveyor pizza oven: Ideal for pizzerias that produce large quantities of pizza in a short timeframe, conveyor pizza ovens cycle multiple pizzas through the oven on a conveyor belt.
Pizza deck oven: A deck oven is what most people picture when they think of a pizza oven. It utilizes heated coils to bake pizzas evenly, plus it’s easy to use and maintain.
Convection pizza oven: Unlike other pizza ovens, convection ovens utilize hot air evenly circulated throughout the space to bake the pizzas. This method results in pizza with crispy, browned cheese and soft doughy crust.
Countertop pizza oven: As a miniaturized version of a deck oven or convection oven, a countertop pizza oven saves space with its compact design while still producing quality pizza.
2. Pizza Dough Prep
The best pizzas start with excellent dough, so the appropriate pizza dough prep tools are fundamental to your pizzeria’s success. Though your secret dough recipe is unique to your pizza shop, equipment like a commercial dough mixer and a proofing cabinet are standard for creating and preparing the dough. Regardless of the style of pizza, the most essential pizza dough prep equipment includes commercial dough mixers, dough dividers, sheeters, rounders, and proper dough storage.
Commercial Dough Mixers
Mixing your pizza dough incorrectly results in a useless lump of dough that won’t rise properly, so using commercial dough mixers for this process ensures your dough is ready to bake. As the mixer combines your ingredients and kneads the dough, it distributes the yeast evenly throughout the dough. This allows the fermentation process to occur and create gluten, hydrate the flour, and integrate other dry ingredients. Additionally, a commercial dough mixer lets you prepare large quantities of dough at once, so you don’t need to worry about running out of dough.
Pizzerias use two types of commercial dough mixers. Based on the needs of your pizzeria, choosing the best mixer can help improve the efficiency of your kitchen.
Planetary mixer: This mixer is known for its versatility due to its detachable and interchangeable mixing parts. Not only can it mix pizza dough, but it also blends and beats other products like mashed potatoes, batter, and meatballs. The name for this mixer stems from the planetary attachment that orbits the motionless bowl, which is the reason for its many uses. Thanks to their versatility, planetary mixers are the preferred choice for pizzerias with an expanded menu.
Spiral mixer: Specifically intended to mix and create dough, a spiral mixer rotates to knead large quantities of dough for long periods to give you perfectly blended dough. Its dough hook head and mounted bowl are permanently fixed, preventing them from being interchangeable. Unlike the planetary mixer, the spiral mixer's bowl gently rotates small portions of the dough into the stationary hook to knead it. This method provides a more uniform dough, giving you more control over the quality of your dough.
Dough Dividers, Rounders, and Sheeters
Once you make your dough, dough dividers, rounders, and sheeters allow you to distribute and shape the dough for your different pizzas. Most tools are also automated, so they divide, stretch, and flatten your dough homogeneously based on your preset preferences. This results in uniformity across all your pizzas.
Dough divider: With a dough divider, you can divide large quantities of dough into equal portions for you to mold into pizzas.
Dough rounder: After dividing the dough, use a dough rounder to prevent gas from escaping from your dough. This machine creates a smooth outer surface that stretches the gluten on the outside of the dough.
Dough sheeter: A dough sheeter saves you time in the pizza-making process by flattening and rolling your dough into a uniform thickness. This is especially vital in pizzerias that produce a large number of pizzas in a short timeframe.
Dough Storage
Proper dough storage saves you time in the kitchen and money on ingredients, making it vital to your pizza shop’s operation. This unique equipment provides the ideal environment for dough to rise and rest until you’re ready to use it. As a result, your focus remains on making pizzas rather than continuously making dough.
Dough box: By utilizing dough boxes in your kitchen, you can store and transport large quantities of cut dough from proofing cabinets to the prep table. These boxes are also designed to allow the dough to rise.
Dough box racks: Stack and store both used and empty dough boxes out of the way with dough box racks.
Proofing cabinet: A proofing cabinet provides the best environment for your pizza dough to rise. They are both temperature-controlled and humidity-controlled, and you can adjust these levels based on your needs.
Pizza scale: Using a pizza scale ensures that your measurements of ingredients remain consistent for every pizza you make, no matter the size.
