Ooni was founded by husband-and-wife team, Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland. Before Ooni Kristian and Darina were running an education company to promote creativity, innovation and problem solving within school communities.

Speaking of problems, Kristian had one: he was really getting into making pizza but he was frustrated— ‘my pizzas are good, but they’re not great.’ The pizzas Kristian was able to make at home lacked that restaurant-quality taste that comes from a very high heat. His domestic oven simply wasn’t cutting it.

Kristian went on the hunt for a wood-fired pizza oven to use in his backyard, but the only products on the market were eye-wateringly expensive and bulky. Kristian wasn’t an inventor, an engineer or a product designer, but he knew he had a great idea. After a series of sketches, many prototypes and ongoing backyard testing, Kristian created the world’s first ever portable wood-fired pizza oven. Ooni – the  fast, portable, cost-effective, kick-ass wood-fired oven was born!