Tovala is the only meal kit I know of that comes with its own oven—and I speak as someone who has tested a lot of meal kits and also ovens. Still, the idea isn't merely wacky. The biggest pitfall of preprepared meal delivery is almost always the microwave, as I noted in my review of HelloFresh's often delicious but sometimes soggy Factor meals. These almost always benefited from an improvised turn in the air fryer. And so the brainstorm on Tovala is both sophisticated and simple. Make mostly pre-prepped meals designed for a specific smart oven—an oven that's able to move itself through a number of preprogrammed cooking modes (steam! convection bake! broil!) to get the desired result. Tovala's smart oven acts like a robot chef for quite specific meals. Photograph: Matthew Korfhage The results are nifty, actually. A red-wine braised filet mignon came out juicy and pink next to a little dollop of creamy mashed potatoes. It's a discount steakhouse in a box. A “tandoori-spiced” chicken and chickpea salad tasted bright and delicious, with a drizzle of mint chutney. An almond-dusted meat and quinoa bowl was drizzled with cilantro chimichurri and topped with almonds. Each required no more than three minutes of prep, plus a turn in the oven. In a prepared-meal world filled with rubber chicken and soggy veg, these solo meals are maybe a little miracle. Though, emphasis is needed on “little.” These meals aren't big, made for one and rarely topping 600 calories. A week's box of meals arrives in a tight brickwork of neatly stacked, cool-packed cardboard boxes. And each meal costs $13, less than DoorDash but significantly more than TV dinners or scratch cooking. The Tovala meal kit fills an interesting but well-occupied niche. It's best for the solo home diner who doesn't want to resign themselves to the microwave, but who for whatever reason doesn't have the time, mental space, inclination, or ability to cook meals with more demanding prep. An Oven With Your Chicken Parm Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Tovala isn't just a meal kit, of course. It's also an oven, and that's where things get interesting. You get your choice of two ovens: a lower-cost oven with a high-speed air fryer fan, and a more advanced “Pro” model with steam cooking capabilities. The higher-end, steam-cooker Pro is the oven I tested. You can buy the Pro on Amazon separately for north of $300, but if you commit to six weeks of meal plan, it's yours for $119. Tovala has placed its chips on lifestyle, and the notion that you'll like its meals long enough to stick around.