Independent review
Genevieve Taylor teaches live-fire cooking at Bristol Fire School and cooks over coals most days of the week. She ran a Charlie through chicken skewers, flatbreads, roast vegetables and a chocolate traybake, then wrote up what worked and what did not.
Genevieve Taylor, The Telegraph, 9 July 2026. · Read the full reviewOn fuel, she wrote: “I was impressed with how little fuel it needs.”
She rated the versatility, the capacity and how little charcoal it burns. She was blunt about the price and the missing storage. Two lines from the review:
“The nine rack levels make multi-temperature cooking much more efficient than on a barbecue”
“it was refreshing to be able to slide trays in and out”
Her verdict
Her conclusion came with two conditions attached, and we would rather you heard them from us than found them later.
She wrote that with storage built into the bottom half and a lower price, she would not hesitate to recommend it. Both are fair, and neither is news to us.
Charlie is expensive. The space under the charcoal grate holds the ash tray and nothing else, so tools and trays have to live somewhere else. Using every cooking style means buying racks and planchas on top of an already serious outlay.
What she did rate was the cooking. Very little charcoal, a wide heat range that holds for hours, and room enough to run several dishes at once without crouching over coals.
Our summary of her review. Read the original for her exact wording.
Versatility across grilling, roasting, baking and smoking. Cooking space that is easy to reach without disturbing everything else. Fuel efficiency that surprised her. And a machine she thought worth leaving on show rather than hiding round the side of the house.
The price, plainly. No storage below the grate, which holds the ash tray and nothing else. And the extra racks and trays needed to unlock every cooking style, which are a real cost on top of the oven itself.
Charlie runs on lumpwood charcoal and needs very little of it. Our own figures are 15 to 20 minutes to reach 200 to 250°C, holding temperature for four to six hours. Use lumpwood and never briquettes, because the additives in briquettes carry into the food.
The working range runs from 100°C to 400°C. Thirty minutes gets you to 375 to 400°C, which is pizza heat. Two layers of insulation, stainless steel and high-grade ceramic wool, hold the heat inside and keep the outside cool enough to stand beside.
The cooking chamber holds 137 litres across nine rack positions. Two stainless steel racks come as standard, each 39cm by 43cm. Move a tray up or down and you change how hard the heat hits it, so several dishes can run at once at different speeds.
The door is on the front and the racks slide out. Getting to the bottom shelf does not mean disturbing everything above it, and nothing has to come off a grill to reach the coals. At 185cm tall and 62cm wide, Charlie works at standing height.
Read live from the product record, so this list cannot drift out of step with what we actually ship.
£4,958.33
Operating temperature range of 100°C to 400°C.
15-20 minutes to reach 200-250°C temperature.
30 minutes to reach 375-400°C for pizza baking.
Holds temperature for between 4 and 6 hours.
Charlie Oven (fully assembled), two heavy-duty stainless steel rod cooking racks, adjustable internal rack system, ash tray, charcoal grate.
Grill, BBQ, roast, bake, hot smoke, sear, slow-cook, and cold smoke.
Lumpwood charcoal (never use briquettes, or use wood for heat rather than just smokiness).
Nine rack levels for multi-height cooking and versatility.
Charlie Charcoal Oven, £4,958.33. Made in Britain, delivered fully assembled, in eleven colours.
Genevieve Taylor
Barbecue author and live-fire cook. Runs Bristol Fire School. Reviewed the Charlie independently for The Telegraph.
Reviewed by Genevieve Taylor for The Telegraph, published 9 July 2026. Read the full review.
The Telegraph states that its article contains affiliate links and that it earns a commission on sales made through them. Charlie Oven has no commercial arrangement with The Telegraph, and nothing on this page is an endorsement by the newspaper.
