Press and Recognition
In 2012 I was sitting in my office at my family's steel shop in Hanover, Massachusetts, reading the Wall Street Journal. There was an article about Modernist Cuisine and a line about steel conducting heat better than stone. I walked into the plant, grabbed a flat plate that had been cut for a Caterpillar part, and took it home that weekend.
That piece of steel was the first Baking Steel.
The Wall Street Journal has since written about the thing that came out of it. That still gets me.
As featured in
Press
The Wall Street Journal
2021 — "How to Make Pizza at Home" / "Secrets to Cooking Pro Pizza at Home: The Best Gear"
Read it
2013 — A profile of the invention and the family business behind it.
The Guardian
2026 — Baking Steel in The Filter, The Guardian's product desk.
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Serious Eats
2012 — "Early Word on Baking Steel: It Works"
Read it
2015 — Follow-up coverage.
J. Kenji López-Alt wrote that the Baking Steel blew his favorite pizza stone out of the water. I didn't know him at the time. He tested it, liked it, and wrote about it, and that is a large part of why the Kickstarter worked at all.
Bon Appétit
2013 — A game-changing pizza tool for home cooks.
2021 — "The Baking Steel Griddle Turns Your Crappy Stove Into a Diner-Style Flattop"
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2025 — The best pizza stones and steels for crispy pies.
Food & Wine
2013 — Essential equipment for home pizza making.
2021 — "Baking Steel Will Transform Your Cooking"
Read it
Forno Bravo
2017 — "Interview with Andris Lagsdin, Inventor of the Baking Steel"
Voyage Michigan
2022 — "Inspiring Conversations with Andris Lagsdin of Baking Steel"
Recognition
America's Test Kitchen named the Baking Steel Original a co-winner in its testing.
Food Network named it best pizza stone.
Amazon Small Business of the Year, 2019. Nominated and finished in the top six out of millions of sellers nationwide.
U.S. trademark, 2023. "Baking Steel" is a registered trademark, Reg. No. 7,118,479.
Modernist Cuisine
The book that started this became a partner. Baking Steel and the team behind Modernist Cuisine co-developed the Modernist Cuisine Special Edition, a steel built to their specification. It is the highest reviewed thing we make.
The book
Baking with Steel, co-authored with Jesse Olson Moore. The recipes and the method, in print.
Where it started
August 2012, Kickstarter, with a $3,000 goal. That's the product's birthday.
In April 2018 Baking Steel spun off from the family business and became its own company.
Where they are made
My dad started Stoughton Steel in the 1970s. Every Baking Steel is still made and shipped out of Stoughton Steel in Hanover, Massachusetts, and my brother Eric runs manufacturing.
Same family, same shop, same building I was sitting in when I read that article.
Every steel and every griddle we sell is made in the United States. So are our cherry wood peels and our dough containers.
What customers say
Press is nice. This is the part I actually watch.
- Modernist Cuisine Special Edition: 4.9 average, 166 reviews
- Baking Steel Griddle: 4.8 average, 84 reviews
- Skinny Griddle: 4.9 average, 53 reviews
Every review sits on the product page it belongs to. Good and bad, unedited.
Press inquiries
If you're writing about pizza, steel, or American manufacturing and want to talk, email info@bakingsteel.com. I answer my own email.
Andris Lagsdin
Founder, Baking Steel
More about how this started