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The Brava Smart Oven cooks with light (and costs about $1,000)

Cooking with fire was so 600,000 years ago. These days, you’re cooking with light. At least, that is, if you’re cooking with Brava’s new smart oven and its Pure Light Cooking technology, a new culinary methodology that harnesses light as an energy source to help you prepare delicious (and nutritious) meals. As its name suggests, Brava’s Pure Light Cooking tech promises to heat its proprietary lamps to temperatures sufficient for cooking, creating a cooking environment that claims to be the equivalent to a 500 degree oven. The coolest (which is to say, neatest) part? It all happens in under a second, thereby eliminating the need for any preheating.

Thanks to its unique Pure Light lamps, Brava purports to help folk cook an entire meal with less energy than required to preheat a traditional oven. With its multi-zone capabilities, you should be able to cook different ingredients at different temperatures, so you’re not scorching everything at a scalding temperature at once. Rather, thanks to a built-in temperature probe, you’ll be able to keep a careful eye on cooking levels, which ought to deliver consistent results.

“We have created a dynamic culinary engine that beautifully enhances the kitchen experience,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Brava. “Whether you’re a first-time cook or a skilled chef, Brava removes the stress and anxiety of preparing a meal and gives you confidence in the kitchen. From family dinners to date nights in, a quick lunch for yourself or hosting friends, our goal is to take the heavy lifting out of cooking to spend more quality time with loved ones.”

Even if you’re not a star chef, Brava should be able to help with its Brava Guided Cooking’s cooking programs. Thanks to proprietary algorithms, which can apparently control lamps and analyze cook and rest times, you’ll be able to set and forget your recipes. Just tell Brava what you’re cooking (or select one of the smart oven’s preset recipes), and Brava will do the rest. The oven’s precise TempSensor will guide meats and fish to cook to their desired doneness, while a heat-resistant internal camera and machine vision will monitor your cooking progress (of course, you can keep tabs on everything from your smartphone).

Of course, such luxury doesn’t come all that cheap. The Brava is currently available for preorder on the company’s website, or at its Stanford Shopping Center showroom for the price of $995. Units are expected to begin shipping in November of this year.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
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