Emile Henry Made in France Flame Top Pizza Stone, Black. Perfect for Pizzas or Breads. In the Oven, On Top of the BBQ. Safe up to 750 degrees F. 100% Natural Clay, Glazed Surface. Easy to Clean.

This is pretty and a pleasure to use. The glaze gives me the impression that it's clean and hygenic, and the breads come out delicious with a crunchy crust and soft inside.While it's labeled a pizza stone I've been using it to make Middle Eastern style flatbreads. Flatbreads are surprisingly simple: Mix it in the food processor, let it rise 45 minutes and put it on the stone. I've used this product both in the oven (my breads baked 400 degrees for 20 minutes) and on my charcoal grill. The size is perfect to fit my 18 inch round Weber grill, and my guests really enjoy watching bread being made on the grill!If anyone wants some recipes, check out The Food of Morocco. I particularly like the super easy Marrakech Tagine Bread and the Berber Skillet Bread, which also easy but must be planned 48 hours in advance because there's a garlic starter to ferment.Other than the appearance, the difference between this and other pizza stones I've used are:* This product has handles on the sides, which are convenient, particularly for removing it from a hot BBQ grill.* It has a nice heft to it, which contributes to the pleasure of using it though I don't know (yet) if it improves cooking. My other round pizza stone is much lighter.* I like the glaze, which is common to all Emile Henry products.The glaze is shiny and easy to clean. Most of the time I need only to rinse and everything comes off quickly. Occasionally, when I've cooked a particularly sticky bread, I use a blue scrunchy with no soap...still very easy.The other thing I like about the glaze is that it gives me the impression that it is hygienic and and makes my food look appetizing. My other pizza stones are porous beige ones (the kind you see everywhere) and stain easily, giving the impression that they're dirty. I admit, this is probably more about how I feel than logic. A pizza stone is heated in the oven at 400 degrees, so what could be possibly living on there? But food is fun for me, and I like the clean-looking pretty glaze!I just did a head-to-head bake off between the Emile Henry and an inexpensive Made in China porous beige pizza stone. I used the Marrakech Tagine Bread, which cooks 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I put the stones in two separate side-by-side ovens and preheated both for an hour. I put two small loaves on each stone and baked for 20 minutes. When the timer rang, I lifted the the Emile Henry easily out of the oven by its handles. With the beige stone, I fumbled trying to get my fingers underneath the sides and I burned my finger on the oven rack.Performance-wise, they were similar. The bread baked on the Emile Henry was ready at exactly 20 minutes, as specified by the recipe. The bread cooked on the less expensive beige stone was not quite done, and needed to be returned to the oven for two more minutes. This is most likely because the Emile Henry is thicker and radiates and holds more heat. Oddly I have the opposite issue with Emile Henry baking dishes--they take a long time to heat up and so food takes *longer* to cook. Once both breads were perfectly cooked they were identical. Both had a golden-brown slightly crunchy crust on the bottom. Both were equally delicious!So overall, I would say that if you can afford it, you will get a lot of pleasure out of the Emile Henry pizza stone. But at least on this one test baking flatbreads I got equally good results using a budget product. UPDATE: Since writing this initial review I have also started making pizza on this stone. I preheat the oven at 500 degrees for 40 minutes and I get the same nice crunchy crust on this stone and on budget stones.My conclusion is that this premium product does not perform better than less expensive stones but it is equivalent in performance, and I like it for the handles and the easy-to-clean surface.

This was a fantastic purchase - it makes excellent pizza, both frozen and homemade! The frozen pizzas come out perfect - does wonders to the crust! And the homemade pizzas are fabulous - the stone cooks evenly, and they come out wonderful. I was amazed that you can cut on it and it doesn't show cut marks, and that the cleanup is a breeze. I definitely don't regret getting this gorgeous stone!Update 4/2014 - still loving it! Just a tip for people that are saying that their pizzas turn out doughy...try this: I preheat the oven to 425 (with or without the stone), roll out the dough, brush the first side with olive oil and put a little bit of cornmeal on the stone. I put the rolled dough oiled side down on the stone and roll a dough docker over it so it won't puff up. I brush it with olive oil and put it in the oven for about 8 minutes until it starts to brown. After removing the dough from the oven, I then add sauce and toppings and return to the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are brown and the cheese is melted. It turns out EXCELLENT! I haven't had a problem with sticking. I often run a LONG spatula underneath to make sure, but it isn't necessary. Don't give up on this amazing stone - give this a try first!

I first received this pizza stone 5 years ago as a wedding present. My husband and I learned to make our own pizza by using pre made pizza dough and covering it in whatever toppings we wanted. Our home made pizzas were delicious and better than delivery. Then we started trying other options. You can put this baby on the grill to make bbq pizza, flat bread, etc... Also it makes frozen pizzas crispy and melty and way better than usual. On the occasion that we do have delivery pizza I've learned to reheat the left overs on this pizza stone so the pizza slices actually taste better the next day, instead of all soggy like when you microwave them. Needless to say we adored this kitchen tool staple, until I dropped it and it broke cleanly in half. I think we both cried a little. So without hesitation I knew we must replace it asap. I looked at Macy's, Williams Sonoma, and Bed Bath & Beyond, they were all kinda pricey, although I would have gladly paid anyway since this is the greatest pizza stone ever. But Amazon had the best price, and could get it to me before the weekend when the all too crucial pizza time usually happened. Since I've replaced it, we've used a dozen more times, and will use it many, many more. Also, you can pop it in the dishwasher, which I love.

This unit made cooking (and re-heating) pizza a breeze. Weighty AND very GOOD product!

First time on the grill was a disaster (burnt on bottom, soggy on top), so we decided to stay with experimenting in the oven until we could master a good pizza. We pre-heat the stone in the oven to 550 degrees and use a really thin crust. The pizza is done in about 5-7 minutes and it tastes amazing! Really happy with how the food comes out, however, the clean up on this has been a nighmare for us - every time! Others rave about how easy this is to clean up, so maybe it's just us (and any suggestions are more than welcome!) Anything that falls onto the stone during transition (cheese, sauce, etc) literally bonds and becomes one with the stone (and trust me, we've been really careful to try to keep anything from falling onto the stone to try and avoid this) I'm not sure if it's because our oven is so hot, but seriously, I use Barkeepers Friend and a scrubby over and over with some serious elbow to get it off. Even at that, there are little black polka dots all over the red stone that I'm just calling a "seasoned stone" now.Anyways - great finished product on your pizza and I'll recommend it for that reason, but the cleanup has been less than desirable, causing me to take a star away from a five-star review.