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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

connected oven

Tovala Adds Beyond Meat to Its Meals and Dedicated Cook Program Lineup

Tovala, which makes the connected countertop oven of the same name, announced today that it now offers Beyond Meat as part of its accompanying meal plans. It also has dedicated automated cook programs for the plant-based meat.

The partnership between the two companies will kick off June 3, after which Beyond Meat will be included in six of Tovala’s pre-packed meals for a month. The Beyond / Tovala meals will rotate on a weekly basis and will include menus items such as:

  • Coconut Kale Curry with Beyond Beef Beefy Crumbles & Roasted Vegetables
  • Italian Sausage & Eggplant Pasta with Beyond Beef Italian Sausage Crumbles
  • Sweet Soy Stir-Fry with Beyond Beef Beefy Crumbles, Brown Rice & Chow Mein Noodles

In addition to Beyond Meat getting into Tovala’s pre-made meals, Tovala’s oven will feature automated cook programs for the plant-based fare, so Tovala owners will be able to cook Beyond Burgers and Sausages with the push of a button.

The Beyond partnership comes at a pretty great time for Tovala. Sales of plant-based meat are booming as customers wake up to the ethical and environmental complications of eating traditional meat, and Beyond’s name brand recognition has never been higher thanks to its recent head-turning IPO.

The two companies met because, at the time, both Beyond and Tovala counted Tyson among their investors. Since then, however, Tyson sold its stake in Beyond prior to the plant-based meat company’s IPO.

Investor origins aside, today’s move also continues to transform Tovala into a platform, something the company needs to keep doing to differentiate itself from the many connected countertop ovens coming to market. While Tovala’s oven is (way) less expensive than the June or the Brava or the forthcoming Suvie, it may have been hobbled early on by perceptions like ours, which found the device good for cooking Tovala-brand meals, but not as convenient for regular meals.

Tovala went a long way to remedy this situation with its second-gen oven that it released last November. The company has since expanded its capabilities with a scan-to-cook feature that works with Trader Joe’s frozen foods, and LG appliances will now cook Tovala meals. The scan-to-cook feature, however, does not work with Beyond products yet.

This partnership is also further recognition that Beyond Meat is becoming more mainstream. Tovala is the second appliance to add a dedicated cook program for Beyond burgers and sausages, following a similar move from June earlier this year. This means appliance companies are putting resources into developing specific cook programs for Beyond.

As of now, the Beyond/Tovala menu partnership is only planned for a one month run. Tovala Co-Founder and CEO David Rabie told me during a phone interview that if this initial run goes well, Beyond Meat could re-surface in its meals on more of an ongoing basis. If so, flexitarian Tovala owners will be beyond thrilled.

Smart Kitchen Appliances: What If “Smart” Means Superior Instead Of Connected?

One of the core discussions around the smart kitchen at SKS over the past three years has been the function and usability of smart devices in the kitchen. What devices will actually help us cook better food more easily and what are just silly attempts at connectivity for connectivity’s sake?

Breville has a different take on what makes an appliance smart, and it goes well beyond the ability to connect to its devices via a smart app. The new Breville Smart Oven Air has unique technology that allows for incredibly precise temperature control and can actually change how the heat is distributed. In other words, depending on the requirements of the specific dish you’re cooking, you can make the oven hotter at the front, top, bottom, or back of the chamber.

Allen Weiner of The Spoon sat down with Scott Brady, General Manager of Global Marketing at Breville at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit to talk about how Breville’s smart oven makes life easier in the kitchen. According to Brady, “this precise heat distribution lets you complete a lot of simple cooking tasks a lot better.”

For example, if you’re baking a cake, you’ll want the heat focused on the bottom of the oven to prevent it from cracking; whereas, for a pizza, you’ll want the heat evenly distributed throughout. Both are possibilities with the Breville oven, so that you can get the perfect finish no matter what you’re cooking. And the guesswork of how to heat and at what temperature isn’t left up to the user – the oven will course correct and heat to perfection no matter what the dish.

Another trend in kitchen appliances seems to be more all-in-one functionality. The future kitchen will likely not have a slow cooker, an oven, a toaster, a microwave and a sous vide machine but rather one or two devices that does most of that with ease. Breville is trying to pull that off with the Smart Oven Air. For one, it’s bringing in air-frying, which is a much healthier way to prepare your favorite fried foods. Instead of using hot oil, the oven uses fast-moving convection heat to mimic the effect of a traditional deep-fryer. Precise temperature control and regulated air movement mean that this oven can also dehydrate fruit, as well as act as a slow-cooker.

The question is: The Breville oven may be smart, but where does the company stand on connectivity?

For Breville, Brady says, “We don’t want to be connected for connected’s sake.” Instead, their goal is to create products that offer unique, new technology that’s truly helpful—not cumbersome. The future of smart kitchen devices is creative technology that actually makes culinary tasks easier for the user when combined with the convenience of an app, a built-in recipe database and intelligence baked into the device itself.

Brady says Breville is working on products that meet this promise, and you can expect them in 2018.