Different Types Of Pizza Cutters (And The Best Type Of Pizza Cutter To Use)
If you enjoy some homemade pizza from time to time (and don’t we all?), you’ve probably experienced some frustration at some point when cutting your pizza.
If you’ve got a nice thick, yet crispy pizza crust, you need your pizza cutter to be sharp enough to cut through the crust without leaving small bits still attached to the piece next to it.
Whenever we buy a takeout pizza from our local pizza place, it’s always a struggle to pull the pieces apart as, despite being professionals in the pizza game, they either don’t take enough time when slicing their pizzas, or they are simply using the wrong type of pizza cutter for the job.
The other big hurdle a pizza cutter needs to get over in order to do its job well, is to be able to cut even slices of pizza without pushing all of the toppings off. This is an area in which most rolling/wheel style pizza cutters fail dismally as they tend to push all of the toppings along with them.
If you like a fairly plain pizza without much topping this might not be an issue for you, but if you like a pizza loaded with toppings, it can be a big problem as most of your flavor gets pushed to one side.
There are a few different types and styles of pizza cutter commonly available. I’m going to give you a basic rundown of the pros and cons of each style as well as elect my preferred brand for each pizza cutter type, then at the end, I’ll reveal which type of pizza cutter I think is the best.
Different Types Of Pizza Cutters
There are four main types of pizza cutters. There’s the traditional wheel style pizza cutter, the rocker blade pizza cutter, scissor pizza cutters and novelty pizza cutters.
Pizza Cutter Wheel
When most people picture a ‘pizza cutter’, this is most likely the type of pizza cutter that springs to mind. It’s basically a handle with a circular blade on the end that spins around as it cuts through the pizza.
These tend to work pretty well and are used in a lot of pizza restaurants. However they do have a tendency to push toppings off the pizza if they are not sharp enough to cut through. It’s a common complaint of this type of pizza cutter that the toppings will be misplaced as you cut.
More recently a hybrid type of wheel pizza cutter has been invented. It’s a more compact design where the handle is replaced with a plastic shell around the wheel blade. It has become a very popular type of pizza cutter on amazon but, frankly, I tried it and didn’t like using it at all.
Cutting with your hand that close to the pizza felt strange to me and I felt it was hard to guide it straight without having the visual aspect you get when holding a longer handle.
Also, despite being sold as ‘easy to clean’ because you can take it apart and put it in the dishwasher, you still have to take it all apart and put it back together again which, quite honestly, is a bit of a pain to do.
Here is a link to a pizza cutter of this type if you want to check it out, I guess the best thing it has going for it is its small, compact size, which makes it easy to store.
Pros for a pizza cutter wheel:
- Relatively small, therefore easy to store
- Easy to use
- Cut any size of pizza
Cons for a pizza cutter wheel:
- Don’t always cut through pizza crust properly
- Pushes pizza topping off
- Can be fiddly to clean
If you’ve decided a pizza cutter wheel is the type of pizza cutter you would like, this one from KitchenAid is, in my opinion, and experience, the best when it comes to pizza cutter wheels.
It’s sharp (so it can cut through your crust), well made, and can help you cut pizza like a pro!
Rocker Blade Pizza Cutter
These pizza cutting tools really look like they mean business! When a friend first saw my rocker pizza cutter, she thought I was getting out some kind of weapon to use! This type of pizza cutter is basically a large, mezzaluna style rocking blade that rocks back and forth on your pizza to cut it into slices.
Sometimes these pizza cutters have wooden handles, sometimes plastic handles and sometimes just a rolled over metal handle. If you’re choosing this type of pizza cutter, my advice would be to avoid the ones with the wooden handle.
This is simply because this type of pizza cutter, which contains no moving parts, washes up very well in the dishwasher. But, if it has a wooden handle, it probably shouldn’t go in the dishwasher, so stick to plastic or metal handles for this kind of pizza cutter.
Traditionally these pizza cutters were not made very sharp, I don’t know if it was a safety concern or just that they thought the rocking action of the blade was enough to cut the pizza.
More recently though, this rocker style pizza cutter has been reinvented and now the good (and sharpest) ones will come with a plastic blade cover which makes it safer to store without fear of cutting your fingers on the blade when rummaging through your utensil drawer.
These pizza cutters (if you buy a good one that is nice and sharp) work exceptionally well. They cut through pizza crust with ease, and the pizza toppings all stay nicely on the pizza, which is a big win in my book as I like my pizzas with ‘the lot’ as far as toppings go.
The downside to this type of pizza cutter is you are somewhat limited in the size of pizza they will cut. Traditionally most of these rocker style cutters are around 14 inches long which means they can cut up 14 inch pizzas and smaller easily, but you would need to jiggle the blade along a bit to cut up a pizza bigger than 14 inches.
Some companies have cottoned on to this though, and you can now also buy some rocker pizza cutters in 16 inch size. I have the 14 inch size and can honestly say I’ve never made a homemade pizza bigger than that so have never had any problems with the size.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you will probably have to transfer your pizza to a cutting board to use this type of cutter. It won’t fit inside the edges of a pizza tray, but, frankly, it’s better for your pans if you don’t cut your pizza up in them and it’s also much better for the blade of the pizza cutter to only be cutting on a cutting board, as other surfaces will prematurely blunt the blade (this is true of pizza wheels too).
Pros for a Rocker Blade Pizza Cutter:
- Cuts pizza crust easily
- Leaves pizza toppings in place
- Dishwasher safe (if you don’t get one with a wooden handle)
Cons for a Rocker Blade Pizza Cutter:
- Large in size – take up storage space
- Need to transfer pizza to a board or pizza box to cut
- Cannot cut very large pizzas (longer than the blade length)
If you think a rocker style pizza cutter is the type you’d like best, you can’t go past the pizza cutters from Checkered Chef. I have both styles (don’t judge! One was a gift!) and I use them both regularly.
I probably prefer the one with the plastic handle as it’s just a bit more comfortable to hold, but both work exceptionally well and get used all the time in our house.
If there’s any further doubt that these are the best pizza cutters, check out the reviews on amazon, thousands of happy customers can’t be wrong!
Scissor Pizza Cutters
Ever tried to cut up your pizza with scissors? It can be done, but you’ll want some pizza cutter scissors for the job!
Pizza cutter scissors are basically a pair of kitchen scissors designed specifically for cutting and serving pizza. Some have a triangle shaped spatula attached to the blade which can help in the serving of the pizza.
One of the benefits of cutting a pizza this way would be that you could cut up your pizza right there in your pizza pan without damaging your pans at all. Simply slide the bottom blade of the scissors under the pizza and then start cutting.
Pros of Pizza Cutter Scissors:
- Can cut up pizza in the pan without scratching the pizza pan
- Can cut up any size of pizza
Cons of Pizza Cutter Scissors:
- Can be difficult to use when dealing with hot pizza
- Fiddly to clean
If you would like to give pizza cutter scissors a try, the best ones are the ones by Dreamfarm.
Or, if you want scissors with a pizza slice sized spatula attached, try these ones:
Novelty Pizza Cutters
Ok, so this type of pizza cutter is not popular because of its talents as a pizza cutter, but it has some other special novelty factor to it that makes people want to own it.
I don’t even think I need to go into the pros and cons about this type of pizza cutter as they’re really just the sort of novelty item you might buy someone as a gift, rather than a serious style of pizza cutter.
But, they’re fun to look at and, who knows, maybe you’re looking for a gift for someone for whom one of these novelty pizza cutters would be perfect. Here’s a selection of some of the best novelty pizza cutters out there:
There’s the circular saw:
The bicycle:
The motorbike:
The axe:
The Star Trek:
And the Star Wars:
These make great gifts and stocking stuffers, but if you’re looking for a serious pizza cutter that actually cuts up pizza really well, I wouldn’t suggest a novelty pizza cutter.
The Best Type Of Pizza Cutter To Use
I don’t know if you’ve guessed by now which type of pizza cutter I recommend? I have both a pizza cutter wheel and a pizza cutter rocker and I choose the rocker blade pizza cutter every time, it just works better.
I make my homemade pizzas on a pizza steel in the oven (so they’re not on a pizza pan/tray anyway) so when I take my pizza out of the oven it goes straight onto a cutting board. Then I just rock my pizza cutter over it four times and voila, 8 perfect slices of pizza!
The only reason I would possibly suggest a pizza wheel over a rocker blade would be if you really didn’t have enough space to store a pizza rocker. Mine fits perfectly in my kitchen drawer with it’s protective plastic sheath keeping it safe but, I don’t know, maybe if you lived in a Tiny House or a caravan, you might really need to consider space.
Otherwise, hands down, the best type of pizza cutter to use is a rocker style pizza cutter.
Grab one yourself and let me know what you think – I know you’re going to love it!
