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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Next-Gen Cooking

Kickstarter: Is Neoven’s Promise of a Portable Oven with Fridge and Mixer too Good to Be True?

Is there any promise less trustworthy than a Kickstarter promise? Crowdfunding campaigns intentionally paint a pretty picture to attract your dollars, but sadly those promises often go unfulfilled, literally (looking at you Rite Press and iGulu).

With that in mind, I’m casting a bit of the ole’ side eye at the NEOVEN, a product now on Kickstarter that promises to be a portable oven to heat your lunch, as well as a fridge and smoothie mixer and kettle.

The NEOVEN has two main compartments: a larger one for holding a food container and heating it, and a secondary one to hold a smaller container of food, or in which to plug in modules like the mixer, kettle and cooling unit. The heating supposedly only takes five minutes and can be controlled via the NEOVEN mobile app.

This is the second heated lunchbox that we’ve written about in as many weeks. The Heatbox also promises to heat up your meal when you’re ready to eat, but it only promises to heat and uses steam to do so. The NEOVEN says it uses a Heta heating element, and it will make smoothies and coffee.

That all sounds great, and I hope they can pull it off. But I’m always leery of Kickstarter devices that try to be so many things. Developing a prototype is one thing but manufacturing something at scale is quite another, and it’s in that leap where so many crowdfunding campaigns go off the rails.

What is interesting is that most of the people commenting on the Kickstarter campaign page aren’t worried about the device not actually coming to market. Instead they’re concerned that it’s made out of plastic. Plastic waste is definitely an issue for the planet, but if it works NEOVEN seems like it could help people use less plastic by eating out less frequently and creating less food waste.

NEOVEN was looking to raise $20,000 and has already hit more than $77,000 in backing with 19 days left in its campaign. Backers can pledge $199 to order a NEOVEN (without any attachments) that is supposed to ship in July of next year.

The Three Stages of Thanksgiving Connected Cooking Grief

In retrospect, I was too cocky this Thanksgiving. Backed by cooking technology and cloud connected apps, I thought making my first turkey would be a breeze. I’d turn a dial, tap a button on my phone and voila! A perfectly cooked turkey would emerge.

Like some folktale about technology versus tradition, I was wrong. While the turkey did come out beautifully, it had almost nothing to do with any connections built into my appliances. In fact, the technology I used almost created more stress than relief.

Thanksgiving is already a stressful holiday. You want your guests to eat on time and enjoy delicious food and, especially with a turkey, you want to make sure no one gets sick. That is partly why I armed myself with so much technology when smoking my first turkey. I had the Traeger Pro 575 WiFire wood pellet grill and a Meater block of WiFi enabled meat thermometers.

Stage 1: Excitement

My initial plan was to use the Traeger app to monitor and control the cooking and the Meater thermometer to ensure that the bird was cooked thoroughly. Easy peasy.

In my previous tests with the Traeger, I noticed that while the accompanying app was useful for remote monitoring and control of the grill, the guided cooking features were a little too automated and on the rails. There wasn’t a place to pause the cook program, so it would just barrel through to the next step (like raising the temperature) even if you weren’t ready. I needed a little more flexibility with a 14-pound bird on a cold day.

For extra accuracy, my plan was to use the Meater thermometers not only to monitor the internal temperature of the bird, but to also help ensure accuracy of the ambient temperature inside the cooking cavity. This backup would just help make sure the grill was cooking at the right temperature.

I’ve used Meater before and found it to be a great experience. The app is intuitive, and while the probe itself is a little thick, it’s easy to set up and use. Or at least it was before. Almost immediately I had issues connecting my Meater app to a thermometer, and even when I managed to do so, that connection was lost as soon as I placed it in the grill and shut the door. After a half hour of re-starting and re-connecting, I just abandoned the Meaters altogether.

Stage 2: Mild Panic

Suddenly, I was left to my own devices and not the ones I thought were going to save me.

Again, this is the first time I’m making a turkey. I wanted it to be done and I didn’t want to get anyone sick. With its slick interface, tons of data and directions on when to pull out the turkey to let it rest, I was counting on the Meater to help me through. But now that was out of the picture.

And the Trager app wasn’t much help, either. The recipe had two main instructions: cook on low heat for a few hours and then move the bird into a foil pan and ratchet up the heat when the color of the bird looked right. Looking right may be the sort of vague direction that works for people with confidence in their cooking, but I only had sort of an idea of what a smoked turkey should look like two hours in.

As a result, I kept opening up the grill to look at the bird, which dropped the temperature of the grill each time and made the cooking process longer. Finally, after a few hours, it looked good and I covered it in butter, wrapped it in foil, set it in a pan and put it back in.

I had started the process at 8 a.m. and it was coming up on noon. Guests would arrive in an hour and we were eating at 3, and this bird was nowhere near done.

Long story short: while the recipe said it would take five hours, the cook actually took more like seven hours, and I had to make adjustments like turning up the heat beyond what was instructed to get the internal temperature to a safe 165 degrees.

Stage 3: Relief

Despite technological shortcomings and my steady worrying, the turkey came out beautifully and was delicious. Really. Not to brag, but it tasted better than the turkey we cooked in a traditional oven and was so good that I’ll probably smoke another one next year.

What I learned is that I can’t rely on gadgets to make it happen though. The connected kitchen still has lots of idiosyncrasies to work out. Devices should connect without hassle and the design of apps should not be an afterthought.

Hopefully the industry can come together to create technology that helps cook the turkey — not be the turkey next Thanksgiving.

The Spoon 2019 Food & Kitchen Tech Gift Guide!

With our bellies full of delicious food and leftovers just waiting to be, well, gobbled, it’s time to turn our attention from gluttony to giving presents. And if you’ve got a foodie in your life, or a techie, or some kind of foodie techie, then we have compiled the perfect gift guide for you!

The Spoon staff has gone over all the gadgets, gizmos and other great stuff we’ve encountered throughout the year and assembled them into one handy-dandy list. Take a look and let us know what you think!

CATHERINE LAMB’S PICKS:

Silicone Straws
We all know that we shouldn’t be using single-use straws because they end up in landfills and oceans. But many reusable straws are large, tricky to clean, and too awkwardly shaped to carry around with us to the office or our favorite lunch spot. That’s why these colorful silicone straws from Food52 are such a win. Not only do they look pretty; they’re also flexible so you can bend and store them in their accompanying carrying cases. Bonus: They come with a squeegee for easy cleaning. A four-pack is $25, so that shakes out to four holiday gifts for under 10 bucks each!

Photo: Willie’s Remedy.

Willie Nelson CBD Coffee
If you need a gift for someone who loves country music, coffee, and is a slightly adventurous (or just two of the three), a bag of beans from Willie’s Remedy may be just the ticket. The coffee from Willie Nelson’s company is infused with CBD, the trendy wellness ingredient that’s the non-hallucinogenic chemical compound in the cannabis plant. It’s meant to promote relaxation and focus, giving you that caffeine boost without the jitters. (Bonus: It’s tasty stuff.) Buyer Beware: While Willie’s Remedy coffee may ship openly around the U.S., CBD-infused food and beverage is technically not approved by the FDA.

Photo: Bright Cellars.

Bright Cellars
There are those people who are really hard to buy gifts for because they already have everything. But one thing that no one (alright, hardly anyone) has enough of is wine. Especially if it’s personalized to their tastes. Bright Cellars is a wine subscription service that uses a short quiz to curate monthly wine deliveries tailored specifically to the recipient’s preferences. It uses feedback to further personalize the wine selection — so it’s also a tool to teach you more about what wines tickle your fancy. Prices are flexible and start at $100.

JENN MARSTON’S PICKS:

GoSun Reusable Cutlery
I’d bet money that for most people who do the whole stocking stuffer thing (raises hand), only about 10 percent of the gifts involve items that are actually useful. But if you want to branch out from chocolate coins and lip balm this year, consider investing in a few pairs of GoSun’s portable utensil packs. The set of reusable cutlery comes with a stainless steel fork and spoon nestled in a metal case roughly the size of a credit card. Pieces are dishwater safe and, in theory at least, can help us curb the amount of disposable cutlery used at QSRs and fast-casual restaurants. The sets are available for $20 each, which is pricier than chocolate coins but exponentially more useful. The only drag is that they don’t actually ship until February 2020, so a photo of the product in someone’s stocking will have to do for the holidays.

Ember Mug 2
Ember released the second-generation version its temperature-controlled mug in October of this year, which makes it an obvious candidate for our 2019 guide. Dubbed the Ember Mug 2, the ceramic “smart” mug keeps your coffee or tea heated to an exact temperature for hours by talking to your phone, which controls the temperature via an app. Yes, the new version is pricy: $99.95 for the 10 oz. mug, $129.95 for the 14 oz. version, and $179.95 for a travel mug. But if you have a loved one who particularly hates microwaving lukewarm dregs of coffee, the Ember Mug2’s longer battery life and touchscreen interface on the mug might just be worth the price hike.

Ponix System Herbert Farm
Got health-conscious family members on which you’re willing to splurge this holiday season? Consider buying them a vertical farm that hangs on the living room or kitchen wall. Ponix System’s Herbert farm uses LEDs and software to grow plants directly in water, with no need for soil. The unit can grow up to 15 plants at once, which is more than enough to provide fresh greens to a single household. The best part of this product is that you can save additional space by mounting Herbert onto the wall. The system goes for €490.00 right now. If you’re outside of the EU, expect additional shipping fees that are determined on a case-by-case basis.

MIKE WOLF’S PICKS:

Image credit: Equal Parts

Equal Parts Cookware and Coaching
No matter how much you cook at home, it’s always good to have a friend you can rely on for cooking advice. If you (or someone in your life) haven’t found that person yet, you might consider a cookware set from Equal Parts. Each set of cookware from this new cookware brand targeted at millennials comes bundled with two months of coaching provided through text messaging, which allows the home cook to ask about anything from techniques to recipe recommendations. I’ve been trying out the coaching service in preparation for Thanksgiving and find my coach responsive and knowledgeable. The cookware+coaching bundles start at $65 and go up to $500 and can be found on the Equal Parts website.

Terra Kaffe TK-01 Grind and Brew Coffee Machine
If you or a loved one has been looking for the closest thing to a coffee robot for the home, the Terra Kaffe TK-01 might just be it. This grind and brew coffee machine allows you to make pretty much any coffee drink under the sun with a few touches of the button. With the ability to optimize your favorite drink and save a specific formulation using the user friendly touch screen, the TK-01 could be the perfect gift for the coffee snob who thinks (s)he has everything. And because it grinds from whole beans stored inside an internal reservoir, it’s more environmentally friendly than that old Keurig, and could be a good gift for someone looking to put pod-based coffee behind them. Priced at $775, you can pick up a TK-01 for $675 using the discount code BF2019 for a limited time.

Sparkel
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, unless of course it’s adding bubbles to a beverage. That’s my and my family’s attitude at least since we’ve been testing out the Sparkel home carbonation machine and add fizz to everything from sweet tea to cold brew coffee to golden milk. The Sparkel, which is available in a starter pack for $99 (or $119 for a Smeg-ish color like pink or light blue), is a good gift option for anyone in your family who loves to try out new types of beverages or just consumes tons of sparkling water.

CHRIS ALBRECHT’S PICKS:

Cinder
A sous vide cooked steak is delicious, but it can be a hassle. You have to bring the water to temp, then seal up your meat in plastic (yuck), heat it in the bath for a long time, and then after all that you have to get a pan or grill ripping hot so you can sear it. Ugh. Who wants to deal with all that? The Cinder grill is like a George Foreman grill on steroids that does all of the above in one device. It offers precision sous vide style cooking with no water bath, no plastic bags, and you can sear it on the same device — and the results are delicious. At $429, the Cinder is a lot more expensive than a sous vide wand, but the time you’ll save will make up for it.

Freshly Meal Plan
I tested a lot of prepared meal delivery services this year and while Freshly wasn’t the cheapest, it was the tastiest. Freshly offers a wide range of meals like Sicilian Style Chicken Parm, Sausage Baked Penne, and Coconut Green Curry Chicken. They arrive already made and packaged up so all you have to do is pop them in the microwave, plate and enjoy! Perfect for busy folks and families looking for a little variety in the weekly dinners. You can gift four meals for $50.

Magically delicious

Magic Spoon
Sugary breakfast cereals are delicious, but also… packed with sugar, which is a no-no. Enter Magic Spoon, the “healthy” sweet breakfast that is reminiscent of your childhood but accommodates your adult lifestyle. It’s gluten-free, keto-friendly, packed with protein and most importantly, SUPER TASTY. So you can eat like a kid without any adult guilt. It does, however, come with an adult price, costing $40 for a four-pack, but having gone through four boxes myself, it’s worth trying at least once.

Those are our picks! What do you want for the holidays? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Electrolux Launches Connected Multi-Function Blender Powered by Drop

Swedish appliance maker Electrolux announced yesterday the launch of its Master 9 Multi Blender, a connected multi-purpose countertop device with an accompanying app powered by Drop.

The press announcement didn’t have many details, but a video posted by Electrolux last month shows a rendering of what the Master 9 is capable of. Depending on which model you get, there are three attachments that allow you to make smoothies and juices, or chop up vegetables for thicker pastes and sauces, or grind spices and coffee.

Electrolux Master 9 Multi Blender

Once connected to the blender, the Master X app, which was developed with Drop, offers up a number of recipes, step-by-step instructions, and blend programs that automatically adjust the speed and duration of a blend, depending on what you are making. The recipes in the Master X app were created in partnership with Le Cordon Bleu.

This blender continues Electrolux’s guided cooking push deeper into the kitchen and beyond just heating things up. The company already owns Anova, which makes sous vide wands, and has partnered with both Innit and SideChef.

This also adds another appliance arrow to Drop’s quiver. Last month cooking OS company partnered with Thermomix to control that appliance as well as order groceries.

No word on price for the Master 9, and even if you are interested in it, Electrolux is launching it first in Thailand and Korea this month and will roll it out to other markets in Asia in March.

If you can’t wait that long for a fancypants blender, you could always pick up the NutriBullet Balance ($149) or Instant Pot’s Ace Blender ($124), though that one doesn’t have an app.

Three Last-Minute Bits of Kitchen Tech That Could Make Your Thanksgiving Easier

If you are having stress dreams about hosting the Thanksgiving meal this year, take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay because we at The Spoon are here to help. While we can’t provide another pair of hands, we can point out some connected kitchen gear that could make your cooking easier and can still be overnighted to you in time for the T-Day.

MEATER THERMOMETER
The Meater is a connected meat thermometer that will let you keep track of your turkey’s internal cooking temperature via its mobile app. The device has a “whole turkey” setting, so you can stick the probe in and monitor your bird without having to open up the oven (losing all that heat) a bunch of times. You can buy a single Meater for $69, or the Meater Block ($269), which has four probes in case you’re cooking more than one turkey or need to coordinate the cooking of more than one meat.

The Anova Nano

ANOVA NANO SOUS VIDE
While you could certainly sous vide a whole turkey, that would take 24 hours and you’ve got enough going on. No, you can use the Anova Nano ($79) to help with other duties like keeping mashed potatoes warm. Make them the day before, and when it’s time to serve them up, load the potatoes into a bag and keep them at a precise temperature in the water bath to free up your oven for other cooking duties .

FOOD NETWORK KITCHEN
If you’re looking for inspiration or need some helpful tips with your trimmings, the Food Network Kitchen app delivers Food Network shows and live instruction from Food Network celebrity chefs. Tomorrow (Tues., Nov. 26th), for example, Martha Stewart will teach you how to make Herb Roasted Heritage Turkey, and Giada De Laurentis gives a class on making a holiday salad. You can watch on your iOS or Android device or on an Alexa Show. Even better, you can try Food Network Kitchen for free for 90 days ($6.99/month after that), so Thanksgiving and all your holidays are covered!

Do you have any bits of food tech that can alleviate the stress of Thanksgiving? Leave a comment and let us know!

Been Waiting to Buy a Smart Oven? Black Friday Deals May Give You the Excuse You Need

Though she had encouraged me to buy one, my wife was not happy when she came home to find our new June Oven taking up countertop space. It was big, bulky and why did we need a fourth (counting the microwave) oven in the kitchen?

And then she tried leftover pizza re-heated in the June and all was immediately forgiven. Now the June is an integral part of our everyday cooking.

If you’ve wanted a smart oven, but have been reluctant because of the size, the perceived usage and most importantly the cost, then this Black Friday may bring you the excuse you’ve needed to finally buy one. Three of the big countertop, connected smart ovens go on sale this Black Friday, here’s what they are offering.

The Brava

BRAVA
The smart oven that cooks with light has a “VIP Pre-Black Friday Sale” going on right now, offering the Brava starter set for $845 (down from $1,095). It includes the oven, temperature sensor (which is dumb to list as an add-on because you definitely need it) a metal tray, a glass tray, and two year membership of its Brava Plus recipes and programmed cook functionalities.

I tested the Brava and it works well, but the small cooking cavity means it’s probably best for couples (or singles!) and not larger families. The good news though, is that Brava just got acquired by Middleby, a publicly traded company this week, and will continue as its own brand. So you don’t have to worry about the company going under and leaving you with a bricked oven.

TOVALA
Tovala has always been the least expensive option of the three main smart oven startups, and it’s also the only one (for now) that does steam cooking. Spoon Founder Mike Wolf liked the second-gen Tovala, and since he tried it both versions now have expanded scan-to-cook functionality so you can scan barcodes on products and the machine takes care of the rest.

For Black Friday, Tovala is dropping the price of the oven to $99 (retails at full price for $299), if you order a minimum of 6 of the Tovala meal deliveries. The company says the deal will run through next Friday and quantities are limited. If you miss that deal, Tovala will be on sale on Cyber Monday for $199.

JUNE OVEN
As noted above, I have a June Oven and use it all the time. The company is currently offering a deal on its second-gen oven that even beats the introductory price I bought it at. Technically, this doesn’t seem to be a specific Black Friday deal, but you can get a June Oven standard package (which, honestly is the basic stuff you actually need to use it) for $499, down from $699. Guess those tariffs weren’t that big a deal after all?

If you are feeling adventurous and can wait till Cyber Monday, you can pre-order the just-announced Weber SmokeFire connected grill that’s powered by the June OS.

Any of these are a worthy addition to your kitchen counter and worth the space you dedicate to them. And with these reduced prices, now is the best time to grab one.

Middleby Acquires Brava

Brava, makers of the eponymous countertop smart oven, has been acquired by industrial and residential cooking equipment company, Middleby. TechCrunch broke the news, and details of the acquisition were not provided other than it was a mix of cash and stock. The four-year-old Brava had raised $12 million in funding

Brava came out of stealth in July of 2018, showing off its countertop smart oven that uses light to cook and has the ability to cook different types of food at different temperatures at the same time. The Brava oven shipped alongside an accompanying meal plan in November of last year, costing a whopping $1,000.

Brava Founder and CEO John Pleasants said in the TechCrunch article that the company was “closing in on 5,000 customers,” which isn’t a lot. But it’s not hard to understand why Brava has struggled in the market. It was the most expensive of the countertop smart ovens at the time, and in our testing, it was hampered by the small cooking cavity and tripped up by other design details that diminished the experience.

The smart oven market is still relatively new, but it’s a crowded space, with other startups like June, Tovala, Suvie already offering products and Anova‘s smart oven on the way (not to mention existing appliance makers like Whirlpool). Brava’s high price probably prevented the company from gaining serious traction.

As far as its future, the Brava brand will remain and become part of Middleby’s commercial and residential offering (Middleby owns the Viking brand). Pleasants will stay on as CEO of Brava, while the company’s 38 employees will move over to Middleby.

Depending on how this holiday season goes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar smart oven acquisitions in 2020.

The JuneOS (Precisely) Heats Up New Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill

Weber announced its new connected SmokeFire wood pellet grill today, which will use the JuneOS for precise temperature control and step-by-step guided cooking. This is the first time June’s technology has been incorporated into a third-party product.

June’s cooking smarts in the SmokeFire grill will be a little different from what June Oven users are used to. For starters, the grill is controlled by the Weber Connect app, which is powered by the JuneOS but invisible to the user. Second, there is no built-in camera to automatically recognize food or touchscreen to control the grill. Instead, there’s a black and white display on the grill with the click knob.

The SmokeFire can go from 200 to 600 degrees, so you can do both low and slow cooking as well as rip it up to get a hot sear. In addition to providing guidance on setup and meal-prep, the Weber Connect app also lets users set precise temperatures. Just like when using a June Oven, the SmokeFire will send an alert to the mobile app based on internal food temperatures to give grillers an ETA on when their food will be done.

Obviously, we haven’t had a chance to use the SmokeFire yet, but from the looks of it, it seems a lot like the Traeger Pro wood pellet grill with WiFire technology ($700). That too has an accompanying app that features precision heat control and step-by-step cooking guidance. I’m curious to see if June can carry over its clean, easy-to-follow oven UI that the Traeger lacks.

This partnership represents a first for both companies. This is Weber’s first pellet grill. It’s also the first time that June’s software has been incorporated into another company’s product. I spoke with June Co-Founder and CEO Matt Van Horn last week about this partnership and he said that his company has “always been open minded” about licensing its OS out to other companies.

The SmokeFire comes in either a 24 or 36 inch model, costing $999 and $1199 respectively. Each will be available for pre-order on Cyber Monday and shipped in early 2020.

Mellow Unveils the Mellow Duo, Their Second Generation Sous Vide Appliance

Earlier this year, Mellow teased their second generation appliance even as it was putting the remaining inventory of their troubled gen 1 on fire sale. And now, in advance of a Kickstarter campaign to be launched next week, the company has unveiled details of the new product which will be called the Mellow Duo.

The most noticeable difference between the original and the Duo is the second generation has not one but two cooking vats to drop food into (hence the name, Duo). According to the company, this will allow a Duo to prepare up a sizeable 10 portions in a cooking session.

Not surprisingly, the new version also has a built-in refrigeration system like the original.  As many will remember, it was this feature that both set the appliance apart early on and got it into some hot (or not quite cold enough) water. WIRED’s Joe Ray gave it a 1 out of 10 in his review of the product, finding that the first Mellow didn’t bring the food’s temperature low enough or hold it there to keep food out of the “danger zone” where bacteria can grow.

Mellow worked quickly to fix the issue and deployed a new app, and now with the Duo the company say they’ve gone even further, improving the cooling technology by “shortening the time between setting the machine up and when ingredients can be added and remain safely refrigerated.” According to the new product’s specs, the refrigerator cools the food to 39 degrees.

The Mellow Duo in action

Will Mellow be able to course correct after a troubled first generation and succeed with the launch of the Duo? Possibly. Despite its issues, the original Mellow does have a fairly active user base, mostly likely because its ability to chill and cook is something that appeals to some. While others are beginning to introduce products like the Suvie, for the time being the Mellow remains the only dedicated sous vide appliance with built-in refrigeration.

Interestingly, unlike its predecessor, the Mellow Duo will debut on Kickstarter. Crowdfunding always carries certain risk for a company, and success often depends on whether the campaign can get quickly out of the gate in its first 48 hours, so we’ll be watching closely next week to see how the Duo performs.

The new product will retail for $399, but backers will have a chance to pick one up for $299 when the Kickstarter campaign begins next week.

See specs for the new Mellow Duo below:

Appliance Size:

Height: 16.1 inches (410 mm)

Width: 7.5 inches (190 mm)

Depth: 14.1 inches (360 mm)

Water Bath Size:

Vat Large:

Height: 11.6 inches (294 mm)

Width: 7.5 inches (190 mm)

Depth: 6.9 inches (360 mm)

Vat Small:

Height: 11.6 inches (294 mm)

Width: 7.5 inches (190 mm)

Depth: 14.1 inches (176 mm)

Maximum Cooking Capacity:

8.5 Liters

About 10 regular portions

Heating Power:

1000 Watt

Cooling Power:

178 Watt

System Requirements:

Wi-Fi connection

iOS 9 or later or Android 4.4 or later device

Temperature Stability:

+/- 1°F at 140°F

Temperature Range:

39°F (at 84°F room temp.) to 194°F

Equal Parts Bundles Coaching With Cookware In Effort To Lure Millennials Into the Kitchen

For those new to cooking, it’s easy to feel lost the first few (or few dozen) times in the kitchen.

But what if you had a personal cooking coach to text with questions about techniques, meal suggestions or even dinner party tips? That’s the idea behind Equal Parts, a cookware brand from Millennial-focused direct-to-consumer startup Pattern Brands.

Here’s how Equal Parts coaching+cookware works:

When you buy a new cookware set from Equal Parts, you get an accompanying bundle of cooking guidance as part of the package. Guidance comes in the form of eight weeks of seven-days-a-week text messaging access to cooking coaches that provide advice on pretty much anything related to the meal journey, from teaching new cooking skills like sautéing to walking through a meal plan to grocery shopping guidance. Coaches are available each day from 4 PM ET to Midnight ET.

The cookware + coaching kits range in price from $65 for a utensil bundle all the way up to $499 for a 20 piece “Complete Kitchen” bundle that includes pans, knives, mixing bowls and more.

Once your eight weeks of text-based coaching is up, you’re ready to spread your wings and fly solo or, as the company puts it on their website, it’s time to “build your intuition in the kitchen” because, after a couple months, “you won’t need us anymore”.

Guided Cooking For The Millennial Generation?

In a way, Equal Parts offers guided cooking, only instead of using connected pans and software, the Millennial-focused brand offers up personalized guidance in a delivery format that is second nature to pretty much anyone in the under-35 crowd: texting.

Another difference with connected products is the temporal nature of the guidance. While products like the Hestan Cue offer the prospect of continuous guidance over the lifetime of product, the reality is most folks usually have a few go-to meals they cook, so the idea of weaning people off of their coaching makes sense. I also suspect giving a limited time window to use the coaching probably is enough to incentivize many to actually use it and not shove their pans in the drawer.

The company behind Equal Parts is a venture funded startup from Pattern Brands, a company founded by some of the marketing agency whizzes who helped launch direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker, Everlane and Bonobos.  While many of the early D2C success stories have been largely focused on fashion and lifestyle categories, the kitchen and other more “domesticated” brand concepts have come into focus the last few years as Millennials move both into parenthood and up the career ladder.

And while Equal Parts is a new take on cookware, it isn’t the first new take targeted at the under-35 set.  Great Jones is another buzzy cookware brand that launched in the last few years, and let’s not forget Buzzfeed Tasty’s cookware brand partnership with Walmart. Tasty has also tried its hand at guided cooking with the Tasty One Top, a product it seemed to lose some interest in over the past year as many of the core team behind the product like Ben Kaufman  (ed note: Buzzfeed emailed us to let us know that Ben Kaufman is still acting as company CMO through the end of this year even as he focuses on his new startup Camp) have moved on.

So will text-message powered coaching be the secret ingredient to establish Equal Parts as an up-and-coming cookware brand? Too soon to tell, but it’s definitely worth a shot.  While the Instant Pot may have become the first cooking gadget Millennials can call their own, the race to become the cookware brand for a generation is too big an opportunity to pass up.

SideChef Launches Guided Cooking Integration With Bixby, Samsung’s AI Assistant

This week, SideChef announced an integration with Samsung’s intelligent voice assistant Bixby. The partnership centers around the launch of a voice-activated guided cooking capsule (capsules are Samsung’s equivalent to Amazon Alexa skills) which will give users of Bixby-powered mobile phones access to approximately 15 thousand recipes, most with step-by-step video-powered cooking instructions.

From the news release:

“Users can hone in on the exact recipe they would like by adding natural language constraints, such as dietary restriction, cuisine type, and even specific ingredients. Once a recipe is selected, SideChef provides video instruction through Bixby to guide home cooks through the entire recipe preparation process, from start to finish.”

While Samsung’s voice assistant doesn’t quite have the same degree of loyal usership as, say, Google Assistant on mobile phones or Amazon Alexa in the home, it is installed on a whole lot of Samsung products. Last year Samsung CEO D.J. Koh declared that the company’s AI assistant could reach a total of 500 million devices if it were to be installed on every Samsung device.

Of course, to reach that massive audience, SideChef’s new capsule would then have to be installed by the consumer, who will be able to find it on the Bixby Marketplace (Samsung’s “app store” for Bixby Capsules). Samsung launched the marketplace in mid-2019, and the newness of the store may actually play to SideChef’s advantage as theirs is probably one of the few recipe-centric voice apps and most likely the only guided cooking capsule on the still relatively bare shelves of the Bixby marketplace.

This move comes a year after SideChef launched on Amazon’s video-enabled Alexa devices, the Alexa Echo Show and Echo Spot, and just a couple months after the smart kitchen software startup announced an integration with Haier’s smart fridges at IFA 2019. While it isn’t immediately clear if the Bixby integration will put SideChef on Samsung Family Hub refrigerators, I would expect that will happen sooner rather than later.

Finally, while SideChef continues to rack up appliance partnerships, the company is also beginning to explore partnerships with big CPG brands. Last month the startup partnered with Bacardi through its Alexa integration to enable step-by-step drink mixing.  This trend of food brands integrating with smart kitchen software platforms isn’t limited to SideChef, as SideChef competitor Innit announced a partnership in September with Mars through a Google Lens integration that will enable both guided cooking and personalized meal and nutrition recommendations.

J-Lo and A-Rod Get Behind Tiller & Hatch’s Pressure Cooker Meal Kits

Don’t be fooled by that box that you got, it’s just food from (food from) Jenny on the block. Kinda. Tiller & Hatch Supply Co., which is “backed” by Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, announced today the launch of its new line of frozen meals, which will be available nationwide online and in-stores at Walmart.

While the bling-y nature of its celebrity backers may be attention-grabbing, what caught our eye how Tiller & Hatch’s meals actually work. The company offers a number of different menus including Farfalle with Marinara and Ground Turkey, Coconut Chicken Stew with Vegetables and Rice, and Santa Fe Style Pasta with Chicken Breast. All are shipped frozen and meant to be re-heated in an electric pressure cooker.

While they don’t mention the brand specifically, it seems like an obvious play to reach Instant Pot’s massive installed base. Given that device’s rabid audience, Tiller & Hatch’s approach isn’t a dumb idea. Whether or not it’s enough to sustain an entire business though, is another matter altogether.

Tiller & Hatch isn’t the only meal service targeting pressure cookers. Up in Canada, Presto has been selling frozen meals for pressure cookers over the past year, though they sell their food for $10 a serving. Tiller & Hatch says its meals are roughly $4 a serving.

In addition to the pressure cooker angle, Tiller & Hatch’s go-to market also highlights how frozen food continues to experience its renaissance. No longer just aluminum trays of Salisbury steak and peas, frozen food sales are up two percent over the past decade thanks to millennials’ love of convenience and companies like AquaStar, Buttermilk and Daily Harvest re-thinking what goes into frozen fare.

Then there is the celebrity angle of J-Lo and A-Rod, though we don’t know how involved they even are with Tiller & Hatch. A press announcement sent to The Spoon only says that they have “backed” the service, but we don’t know what that means exactly, and neither celebrity name appears on the Tiller & Hatch website. We reached out to Tiller & Hatch for clarification, and will update accordingly. UPDATE: A spokesperson for Tiller & Hatch emailed to tell us that Lopez and Rodriguez are Co-Founders of Tiller & Hatch. Even so, celebrity endorsement doesn’t always equal success in the packaged meal game. Blue Apron launched a line of Chrissy Tiegen meal kits, and that wasn’t enough to stop the company’s steady decline.

Is J-Lo just a, err, hustler with Tiller & Hatch? Probably not, but it’s worth keeping an eye on the company to see if its pressure cooker approach is enough to win over customers.