Pizza Cutters

Recently, we noticed that options for cutting pizza have bubbled up faster than mozzarella in a 900-degree wood-fired oven. We saw five main categories: the classic wheel attached to a handle as well as four other styles—wheels that you grip directly by the plastic case housing the blade, scissor-style cutters, pie server–shaped cutters with sharp sides, and long straight blades.

Our goal: a pizza cutter that made precise, even slices in a range of pizza styles and was comfortable, safe, and easy to clean. Could any beat the classic wheel?

We started with a broad field and an easy test: thin-crust cheese pizzas, with a minimal layer of cheese and sauce and a 1/2-inch-thick crust. Then we chose the six best cutters—two handled wheels, one hand wheel, one scissor-style, one sharp-sided pie server, and one long straight blade—and pitted these six finalists against one another in a second series of tests. We sliced up more thin-crust pizza; huge rectangular slabs of Sicilian pizza with 1-inch-thick crusts; and classic Chicago-style deep-dish with sheets of cheese, thick sauce, and towering 2-inch crusts. We also tried each on a combo of heavy, wet toppings—sausage, spinach, mushrooms, and onions—and on pepperoni pizzas, because pepperoni tends to cling to the cheese and strip it off if not severed tidily.

The two oddballs worked surprisingly well—the pie server–shaped cutter and the scissors were both sharp and easy to use. But the pie server didn’t have a good place to brace a second hand when we needed more force, so we docked points. Testers were surprised by how much they liked the scissors, which sliced through even deep-dish pizza and heavy, wet toppings with ease (we tried our regular kitchen shears on different styles of pizza, too, but their blades were too short and gummed up easily). But there was a problem with both the scissors and the pie-server cutter: Testers had to make a series of shorter cuts instead of one long continuous slice, which was harder and turned out wonky slices. These shorter, uneven cuts also meant that these models wouldn’t work for evenly slicing pastry or pasta dough, which we sometimes use pizza wheels for. As a result, these models were less versatile.

Next, we looked at the straight blade cutter. At just longer than a foot, it was the best of the long blades and had a nice grippy handle. But while it was the sharpest of the straight blades we tried, it was still far too dull. To get through the crust, testers had to rock it back and forth again and again, battering the toppings, cheese, sauce, and crust into a messy pulp.

The hand wheel was disappointing, too. Its circular blade was housed i... read more