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A PECULIAR COUNTERTOP oven debuted with a splash in 2018, wooing cookery nerds like me with claims of "pure light" heating and using connected cooking to streamline dinner-making. The brand even had a flashy showroom in the California Bay Area. But as quickly as that showroom appeared, it disappeared, closing in May 2019, leaving many to wonder if the company, Brava, would follow suit. That fall, however, Brava was acquired, injecting life (and cash) into the manufacturer and helping to, um, keep the light alive.

Pure or impure, the pricey Brava oven—$1,095 plus pan sets that can add up to $400 to the tab—is unique. It’s a large, pleasantly solid silver box with no window in the door, and just a little video touchscreen on top so you can watch what's happening inside. That's next to the start button, and the rest of the top is a large silicone pad where you can safely set down hot trays.

"Cooking with light" is a novel approach, with sets of computer-controlled halogen lamps heating from above and below, allowing you to cook different kinds of food with different amounts of heat on the same cooking tray.