We at the Spoon have long been curious about Brava, the stealthy smart kitchen startup which recently debuted its first product: an oven which uses the power of light to cook food quickly and precisely, with low energy usage.
Brava’s CEO John Pleasants be speaking at the Smart Kitchen Summit this October on a panel entitled “Reimagining The Cooking Box,” alongside Lisa McManus of America’s Test Kitchen, Matt van Horn of June, and Robin Liss of Suvie. To heat up (zing!) a little excitement for Pleasants’ panel, we asked him a few questions about Brava’s quest to create an oven so good, they’re calling it “the future of cooking.”
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Brava’s oven cooks with the power of light — how did you land on the concept and develop it for the consumer?
The idea for Brava started in our founder’s home thinking about how to solve the age-old problem of the family provider having to frequently go back and forth to the kitchen during a Holiday meal. The idea was to liberate them from that stressful distraction so the family could enjoy each other’s company without worry of burning their food.
At the same time, we believed that cooking technology had remained relatively static for 50 years (i.e., basic convection and conduction in ovens and stovetops) and that to truly revolutionize in home cooking, a better, faster and more dynamic heating method was needed. This spawned the birth of Pure Light cooking: our patented direct energy transfer methodology via highly controllable infrared light. We marry our custom Pure Light heating elements with a sophisticated cooking engine and an array of sensors, machine vision and AI that together delivers fantastic results with very minimal cooking effort.
Why did you decide to pair the Brava oven with a food delivery service?
Our mission is to empower anyone to make amazing food at home, any day of the week. For some people, they will want a full and turnkey solution, including ingredient delivery and preparation. So we will give them that option.
In addition, all the recipes are developed by our culinary team (including the on-oven cooking recipes/instructions) and the food is sourced from some of the finest purveyors in the world. We take great pride in our menus and the quality of our ingredients, and we think our customers will appreciate all the quality and attention to detail we bring to bear here.
Why did you decide to build your own brand with Brava, instead of licensing out your light-cooking tech to larger manufacturers?
We are a technology food and cooking company, focused on a direct to consumer model. We believe all elements ‚ from recipe development to hardware to constantly updating software — all have to come together under a single entity to deliver the type of service we think can truly change people’s routines and lives for the better. We seek to build that company.
Do you think that connected appliances will eventually become the norm in the kitchen, showing up in the homes of everyone, even non-tech-forward consumers? Or will they continue to be a niche product?
Connected appliances are definitely going to become a staple in the home, specifically in the kitchen. But the connection or “smarts” has to be valuable and actually improve people’s everyday lives…and today that’s not always the case.
How do you envision the kitchen of the future? Is it full of connected appliances? Voice assistants? Paint us a picture!
Pure Light Technology in every kitchen 
You can try Brava’s Pure Light Cooking tech (AKA bake things with light!) for yourself at the Smart Kitchen Summit on October 8-9th! Tickets are going fast, so don’t delay — we’ll see you in Seattle.
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