How Andris Lagsdin invented Baking Steel
A story about a cook, a piece of steel, a family manufacturing business, and the search for better pizza at home.
From an experiment to a category-defining product
The idea began when Andris explored whether steel's ability to transfer heat could solve a problem familiar to home cooks: residential ovens do not behave like professional pizza ovens. He took steel from his family's manufacturing world, tested it at home, and spent the following period refining the concept. Baking Steel launched on Kickstarter in 2012. Early attention from food writers and cooks helped turn the experiment into a business, and the product became closely associated with the idea of using conductive steel to improve home-oven pizza.