I started working in tech when it was still referred to as the internet and just shortly after I got my first cell phone. Fast forward 15 years and 400 miles north of where I grew up, to find myself living in San Francisco, working in the heart of Silicon Valley and raising a family with the constant reminder that balance is the most critical element in the formula for how I want to live my life. Now I’m in the Smart Kitchen space – one of the hottest in the industry, and one of very few sectors I can pair personal passions with my career.
I make all the food decisions for my family, do most of the shopping, cooking, planning…and for the most part, I enjoy it. There are lots of surprises in life, but what I’m making for dinner is not usually one of them. Almost two years into my time at Brava, I finally brought the Oven home with the intention of having it stay a while. And, I didn’t cook anything I thought I would.
Enter Brava. The oven is a beast at cooking proteins. From chicken to steak to fish and beyond, I anticipated that’s what I’d use it for most. Crisp chicken skin atop tender meat that I don’t have to watch or worry about was a no-brainer. It’s not that I can’t do it in a cast iron and my old oven, it just requires more of me, and that’s exactly the “me” that I’d like to be pouring over my kids. Not to mention a major clean-up effort every time. For full disclosure, I feared I’d start introducing more proteins into our routine, exactly the opposite of what I’ve been trying to do lately – infuse our meals with vegetables and make fine proteins a special occasion.
It started by experimenting with Brava-seared gnocchi. Then kale chips…who makes kale chips on a weeknight? Certainly not the old me. Farmer’s Market rainbow cauliflower followed by roasted potatoes, then Brussels sprouts and on and on with basic ingredients we couldn’t get enough of. Tray after tray of beautiful veggies and I couldn’t stop. I quickly found myself straying from my usual rotation of dishes and eager to cook anything I could get my hands on. I fiendishly hunted for new items and hadn’t even done a multizone yet.
My courtship with Brava has just begun, and within the sacred walls of my kitchen, I welcome the ups and downs, successes and failures, routine and adventure and hopefully another surprise or two along the way.