Meet Brava, the W-Fi-controlled, cook-anything oven for grownups — after testing it for 2 months, I think it's one of 2 kitchen appliances you'll ever need

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The Brava excels at making entire dishes that include meat, starch, and veggies all at the same time.Brava

• The Brava is a teched-out oven for everyone from the inveterate home chef to the can't-be-bothered TV dinner devotee and everyone in between.
• Equipped with an ever-growing compendium of recipes and capabilities, the Brava does just about everything and does it well — which is exactly what you'd expect from something that costs $1,095.
• I tested it for a few months and it's found a new home in my kitchen thanks to the time it saves me, the ease of cleanup, and its basic simplicity.
• Read more: Breville's Combi Wave combines a microwave, oven, and air fryer into one versatile machine — I was able to roast a whole duck evenly and easily

Behold the Brava, the only cooking appliance you will ever need.

Well, not quite.

But if you're one of those people who grew up coveting the Easy-Bake toy oven praying that by the time you reached adulthood, there'd be something along those lines, rejoice! Your (and our) petitions have been answered. The Brava is powerful enough to roast a whole chicken, broil a pair of lobster tails, or whip up a breakfast sandwich in five minutes. All without needing your attention so you can dry your hair, shave, or drag the offspring out of bed and into the minivan.

The microwave-sized Brava is the ultimate complement to the Instant Pot or Chef iQ. Save for making soups and stews, it is a 10-in-one do-all smart kitchen appliance. Alongside one of the aforementioned cookers, as well as a sink, a fridge, and maybe a coffee pot, it's about all you need to complete a kitchen.

I've been testing the Brava for two months, and while I personally love the tumble and toil of prepping and cooking a meal in the kitchen, sometimes there's just no time, and that is exactly what Brava was invented for — well, that and people who don't care to cook at all.

The advantages of owning a Brava and who it's for

The way we see it, this appliance is for a few types of people: those who can't be bothered to cook, those who value decent food but don't want to dine out every night, and those who are starting from scratch in a new home or apartment. So, yeah, many people.

But we can't stress this enough: the Brava isn't for everyone. You could think of it as an ultra-fancy microwave (it will do almost all the things a microwave will), but I view it more like an exceptionally intuitive smart oven. Having six different lights and eight internal temperature sensors, I'm convinced that not even a human can cook as precisely. At least that's what I'm telling myself in order to feel better about being repeatedly out-cooked by a robot.

Of course, it doesn't take a gluttonous gourmand to validate this machine. Pas de tout. Mac and cheese? Not a problem. Reheating a leftover slice of pizza from goodness knows when or where last night? Don't bother with preheating the oven. That thing will be crisp and sizzling within a couple of minutes in the Brava.

And for a balanced meal? Well, this is where the Brava might really shine for some. Remember those six infrared lights and eight internal sensors? They can cook plenty of dishes with ease, all on the trays, pans, and tins either included in the Starter Set (which I tested) or as add-ons. We'll get to a small sampling of the dishes in a bit.

Specs of the Brava

Out of the box, the Brava is a pretty intuitive-looking device and there is little setup required. Still, Brava offers a free one-on-one video call to all customers, which I found infinitely helpful, fun, and engaging. I gave my instructor a headache's worth of questions, but he barely batted an eye responding. He also stayed on the video call with me for two solid hours while testing and retesting every component of the machine and entertaining all of my questions and weird what-if scenarios that might cause the Brava to trip up.

What's included in the Starter Set: Brava machine, two cooking trays, one internal meat thermometer

Dimensions: 11.3 inches (28.8 cm) tall x 16.4 inches (41.6 cm) wide x 17.3 inches (44.0 cm) long

Weight: 34.4 pounds (15.6 kg)

Temperature: Dependent, but 0-500° Fahrenheit in under one second

Power: 1800 watts (120 volts)

Power requirements: Dedicated electrical circuit, Wiring consistent with National Electrical Code for kitchen, 15-20 AMP circuit breaker

Brava Plus Membership: Two years of the service, which includes access to the cloud service, recipes, and professional chef support ($9.95/month after that for continued updates, personalized settings, cloud connectivity, chef support, and discounts)

Guarantee: 100-day risk-free

Warranty: One-year limited

How it works

In effect, it's something along the lines of this handy little device that the unfathomably prescient creators of one fine cartoon foresaw:

Let's say you want to cook some combination of meat or fish, starch, and vegetables. The first thing you'll want to do is find the recipe on the app or within the interface on the Brava. Select it and then follow the step-by-step instructions (send the recipe to your appliance if you're using your phone), which will dictate where the ingredients go on the tray.

Essentially, each tray is broken up geometrically into thirds so that it corresponds with one or two of the lights above and below it, and the sections are numbered correspondingly 1, 2, and 3. Based on what you choose, it will tell you where your veggies, starches, and meat or fish on the tray.

Here is Brava's ongoing compendium of recipes from chefs and more.

Make sure the trays aren't in backward, and then you can pretty much set it and forget it — the lights and sensors will do all of the work. Or, as I did the first few times, pull up a chair and ooh and ahh as you watch in real-time video as your meal comes to fruition before your very eyes.

When it's done, you'll hear a smartphone-like ringtone. And if you find that you don't like how something turns out, even though the machine thinks it's done, you can correct it by choosing either a "sear" option or a "doneness" one. The sear option will hit it with hot and fast heat, and doneness will continue cooking as it was, but for however long you decide. The Brava can also save your preferences — I, for example, like my thick-cut bacon to be exactly 9% less done than Brava's standard cooking time for slices.

Customization aside, the default settings work unbelievably well. The lobster tails may have left me the most impressed so far, but it's been no slouch when it's come to skin-on salmon, sausages, eggs, and more. We could and will continue to be carried away with all the possibilities.

Here are a few of the preset recipes we tested with the Brava:Read the original article on Business Insider