Single-use kitchen gadgets can be contentious, but some tools really do the job better than anything else. A pizza cutter is precisely that kind of tool. Even with a great set of knives, a pizza cutter is better equipped to handle hot, melty cheese. And if you don’t fancy yourself much of a chef, a pizza cutter will still come in handy for piping hot pizzas from a cardboard box.
Pizza cutters also make it easier to enact slice socialism. Anytime pizza is served, everyone jockeys for the biggest slice with the most toppings, dividing the party into the pepperoni haves and the pepperoni have-nots. A reliable pizza cutter will get your pizzas as fairly divided as possible.
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There are a lot of different kinds of pizza cutters, including wheels, rocking cutters, and kitchen shears. Wheels are favored for home cooks because they’re compact so that they won’t take up too much space in your drawers, but they can require a few passes to cut the pizza properly.
Mezzalunas, or rocking cutters, have a curved blade that you rock back and forth to cut the pizza, and you’ll often see these at pizzerias. The main drawback of this style of pizza slicer is that they take up a lot of space. Kitchen scissors are great to have for a variety of tasks, and they work surprisingly well for cutting slices of pizza. One drawback is that you often have to hold the crust to keep it from moving, so shears may not be ideal for use if your pizza is piping hot out of the oven.
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When choosing the best pizza cutter for you, it’s worth considering the kind of pizza you like. We won’t wade into the deep dish vs. thin and crispy debate other than to posit that some pizza slicers are better for some pizzas than others. That’s why we’ve picked out the best pizza cutters by the kind of pizza they’re best for.
Best For Deep Dish: Rocker Pizza Cutter
Checkered Chef Pizza Cutter Rocker
A deep-dish pizza with lots of toppings can present a challenge for wheels and scissors, which might get gummed up with sauce and cheese. A rocker pizza cutter can cut through the sauciest, goopiest pizzas because there are no moving parts. It’s just a big piece of metal with a handle. Rocking cutters (unsurprisingly) rock back and forth to cut the slice.
The main drawback with a rocking cutter is the large size, which makes them hard to store. They also may not be ideal for larger pizzas because you want a pizza slicer that’s as wide as or wider than the pizza itself.
Checkered Chef makes an affordable version of the pizza rocker, also called a Mezzaluna. It comes with a blade cover for safe storage when not in use. The large 16″ size means it can handle most pizzas. Though it takes up more space, if you eat a lot of pizza, it’s worth having a pizza cutter that will do the job right the first time. When you don’t have to slice your pizza pie twice, that’s amore.
Best For Thin Slices: Kitchen Shears
Fiskars Non-scratch Kitchen Shears
If you haven’t thought of cutting pizza with shears or scissors, you’re missing out. Shears can be one of the most versatile tools in the kitchen. If your tastes skew New York style or Neopolitan, a pair of kitchen shears can be one of the best ways to cut a pizza slice. Scissors can get slowed down and overly messy if using them for a thick slice or deep dish pizza, but they’re perfect for thin slices.
Fiskars is well known for making some of the best scissors for paper and cloth, and the iconic orange handle is just as trustworthy for your pizza. The curved shape allows you to cut without lifting the pizza while keeping your hands out of harm’s way. Plus, the rubberized base means you can use these shears on nonstick surfaces without damaging them. The blades of the shears are detachable for easy cleaning.
Best For Frozen Pizza: Pizza Wheel
OXO Steel 4″ Pizza Wheel
There’s no shame in the frozen pizza game. Boxed pizza is affordable, easy to cook, and great if you’ve got multiple mouths to feed. When it comes to frozen pizza, there’s no need to overthink it. A pizza wheel will get the job done, and you can actually store it in your cupboard, unlike rocking pizza slicers.
That said, not every pizza wheel is created equal. And when it comes to kitchen gadgets that do the job just a little bit better than everyone else, OXO is the brand to know. They combine quality construction with clever design to make products that will have you wondering why it was ever done a different way. This pizza cutter has few special features; it’s just a well-designed pizza slicer. The sharp blade and large 4″ wheel make it well-suited to cutting through slices thick and thin.
Oxo’s cutter also has plastic on the handle for a more comfortable grip, and the pronounced thumb guard keeps your hands safe when slicing.