The Best Pizza Peel of 2024

Pizza peels are an essential part of any pizzaiolo’s tool kit, along with pizza stone and pizza cutter. It allows you to navigate a scorching hot pizza oven and easily reposition your pizza without any risk to life and limb. 

To make sure you get the most out of your pizza peel, we’ve run down and reviewed some of the best on the market. 

Our top picks: best pizza peels of 2024

Pizza peels are made of a range of materials, with the most common ones being aluminum, steel, wood, and bamboo. To give you the greatest range to choose from, we’ve included one of each and a few other excellent options.

1. Chef Pomodoro Aluminum Pizza Peel

Pizza peels are large pieces of equipment that can be unwieldy to use and hard to store. The Chef Pomodoro’s aluminum pizza peel addresses those issues through a lighter construction material and a folding handle, which is a nice touch.

The peel head is 12-inches wide by 14-inches long, and it has a 10-inch foldable handle. There is a safety backstep at the peel’s hand end to prevent hot pizza from sliding back onto your hand.

The only downside to an aluminum peel is that they tend to be a little less durable than other materials. If you’re making a lot of pizza and don’t have any storage issues, you might want to opt for a more durable steel peel.

What we like:

• The peel is lightweight and easy to use.
• The folding handle makes the peel much easier to store.

What we don’t like:

• Lightweight materials mean the peel is going to be less durable. 

2. New Star Foodservice Wooden Pizza Peel

The New Star pizza peel is made from a single piece of durable natural birchwood, measuring 30-inches wide by 20-inches long with a 12-inch handle. The peel end had a half-inch tapered blade edge, making it easier to slip under your pizza.

Single piece wooden peels are durable, which is excellent if you find yourself making a lot of pies, but are a little heavier than the metal alternatives. The other downside is that they tend to be hand wash only, as water immersion in a dishwasher can cause them to swell and split.

New Star also does multiple variations on this design with various sizes and lengths available with square or round blades.

What we like:

• The bladed edge makes it much easier to slip under the pizza.
• The one-piece wooden construction is durable and hard-wearing.

What we don’t like:

• You can’t just pop this one in the dishwasher.

3. Checkered Chef Steel Pizza Peel

Combining durability with innovative folding construction, the Checkered Chef peel is made from food-grade stainless steel and has a locking fold-out handle that makes the peel easy to store. 

The peel measures 13-inches long by 16-inches wide and, with the handle folded out, extends to 25.5-inches long, which is more than enough to keep your hands away from the flames. The handle itself folds out and then uses a steel cuff to lock the joint, so you don’t have to worry about stability.

There is a ridged catch shoulder to prevent the pizza from slipping back onto your hands. It could be a little more robust, but the low profile is probably due to the need for the handle to fold flush against the peel.

Best of all, you can pop this peel directly into the dishwasher because it’s all steel and rubber.

What we like:

• Stainless steel is both corrosion resistant and hard-wearing.
• The folding hand is useful, and the design is nice and stable.

What we don’t like:

• It’s a little smaller than we might have liked. 

4. Update International: 42″ Wooden Pizza Peel

Update International does a number of variants of their pizza peel design, but the one that caught our eye was their 42” model.

As we’ve discussed before, you need to get your pizza oven screaming hot to get the traditional puffy Neopolitan-style crust, between 450 and 500 degrees. The downside to that high temperature is that you need to get your hands near it to actually cook your pizza.

Depending on your pizza oven’s design, it might also kick heat out of the door like a blast furnace. Using a peel with a much longer handle, in this case a 42″ total length, is going to save your hands.

The peel itself is made of durable, premium rubberwood with a tapered edge to help you get under your pizza.

What we like:

• The longer handle is great for avoiding getting char-broiled every time you want to adjust your pizza.
• The rubberwood construction is durable and food safe.

What we don’t like:

• Like all wooden peel, you have to hand wash this one. Although at 42”, it’s probably not going to fit in a standard dishwasher anyway.

5. Pizza Royale Ethically Sourced Premium Natural Bamboo Pizza Peel 

Bamboo is an excellent alternative to wood because of its incredibly fast growth rate. Because it can be grown very quickly, it is far easier to farm sustainably than traditional hardwoods.  

The Pizza Royale natural bamboo pizza peel is made from ethically sourced bamboo and measures 23.5-inches by 15-inches.

The peel end has a bladed bevel that makes it easier to get under a pizza.

The bamboo is hand wash only, which is the same as the vast majority of wooden paddles, but it will not split, warp or splinter when adequately cared for. 

If you’ve not used bamboo before and are a little wary about its durability, the good news is that Pizza Royale offers a 180-day money-back guarantee.

What we like:

• Bamboo is a much more sustainable source than traditional hardwoods.
• The head of the peel is on the wider side, making it easier to use with larger pizzas.

What we don’t like:

• The handle is a little short for such a wide-bladed peel.

6. My Personal Memories Store Personalized Pizza Peel

If someone in your life has just got a new pizza oven, built themselves a DIY pizza oven, or just really loves pizza, then getting them a personalized pizza peel is both thoughtful and useful.

Make from bamboo, this peel measures 14.5-inches by 14.5-inches and is 23.5-inches long, including the handle.

The bladed edge makes it easier to move pizzas around, while the bamboo construction keeps it nice and lightweight.

Best of all, you can have a custom design engraved onto your pizza peel for no extra cost.

This peel would make an excellent gift for the pizza lover in your life, even if that happens to be you. It’s 2020, go ahead and treat yourself.

Wrapping it up 

If you’re going to invest in making great pizza, and you should, then a pizza peel is a must. With our list, you don’t have to trawl through the internet looking for one. We’ve hunted down the best pizza peels out there so you can spend more time making fantastic pizza.

Do you prefer wood or a metal pizza peel? Would you buy a sustainably-sourced bamboo peel? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!