Allison interviews Christopher Huang, founder and CEO of Brisk It, about their A.I.-powered BBQ grill. Using smart home automation technology, Brisk It provides a nearly hands-free and stress-free grilling experience.
What sets Brisk It apart from other grills is that it is controlled using generative AI software. Using a mobile app compatible with either iOS or Android, the griller can ask questions, input photos, and state their goals for the desired cook.
Brisk It AI uses these parameters to generate specific preparation and cooking directions. The griller can modify the generated recipe if desired. Brisk It sends the AI-generated cooking recipe to the grill to execute an automated cooking session.
Christopher describes two grills, the Brisk It Origin 580 with 580 sq in of cooking space and the Zelos 450 with 450 square inches. Both grills can smoke as low as 165 degrees or as high as 500 degrees for high-heat grilling. The smaller Zelos 450 has the same features as the larger Origin 580.
Both grills feature an automated wood pellet hopper for extended grilling or smoking sessions. They also have a high-resolution digital screen for controlling and monitoring the cooking session.
Learn more at https://briskitgrills.com/
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Transcript of Interview:
Allison: Our good friend Chris Ashley is the master of barbecue and grilling and making briskets in particular. So, we had to stop by the Brisk It booth to learn about a new device that’s all AI powered to make apparently perfect brisket. I’m here with Christopher Huang to tell us about it.
Christopher Huang: Hello, thank you for having me. Yes, so Brisk It is all about using AI, smart home technology, and automation to deliver the most hands-free and simple and stress-free grilling experience possible. The whole idea is that the entire process from the recipe generation to the preparation, to the cook, to even the post cook can be done as close to one click as possible.
Allison: I see, so this is a smoker, correct?
Christopher Huang: Is a wood pellet grill, yes. It can smoke as low as 165 and go up to 500 degrees for high-heat grilling.
Allison: Okay, so you can do the whole thing. So, talk to us about the interface here and there will be people who are only listening, so describe as much as possible if you would.
Christopher Huang: Okay, great. So what you see here is a representation of the mobile app that’s available at the app store and iOS store as well. And what this allows you to do as very simple basics, it allows you to control, and monitor your grill from anywhere using your mobile app. But of course, what really sets us apart is our AI, generative AI software. So the whole idea is that you can open up Vera, which is our generative AI, and you can ask anything, say anything, and even photograph anything. And in freeform input, it’ll then generate the recipe based on whatever you tell it.
Allison: So I could say, make me some Brussels sprouts.
Christopher Huang: Exactly. That’s a very simple one, but you can even go as complicated as, make me some Brussels sprouts, make sure it’s, I only have this amount of time, I have this many people. One person is allergic to that. And I also want to combine it with a steak. Cook all of that for me in 20 minutes. And it’ll take all those parameters in freeform input, whether through voice or text. You can even take a photo of something, and then it’ll then generate a recipe.
Allison: That’s crazy. That sounds really cool. So let’s go to the next step now.
Christopher Huang: Okay, so let’s say that I want to make a, these are just pre-made, but I want to make a brisket with tin foil wrap. So I can press that, and then like a true generative AI, it is then using data inputs as well as our database and language model to then generate a recipe and a cooking program that will correspond with the parameters that you’ve provided. So as you can see, this has been generated. This recipe did not exist just a few seconds ago.
Christopher Huang: So it says trim the brisket, tells you what to trim, tells you the ingredients you need and to season it, what to season it with. And now it’s going to start talking about smoking at 225.
Allison: So just like any real chef, if you don’t like something, you can modify it, make it spicier, make it faster, make it larger, or add some new ingredients to it. We didn’t tell it how big the brisket was. How did it know how long to cook it?
Christopher Huang: Well, then it will then use, that’s the great thing about just like any AI, the more information you give, the more specific it will be. But the less information you give, it’ll be more general. But it’s still, general is not necessarily bad because it may just be what’s the best recommendation.
Allison: Okay. So with smoking a brisket, there’s a lot of activity. You do this for a while and then you take it out and you flip it over and you spread this on it and you shove it back in. I have watched people make briskets and it’s a lot of steps. So I noticed up here, it is telling us, for example, smoke at 225 and it tells us for eight hours, but then it tells us to wrap it in tinfoil after that, correct?
Christopher Huang: Exactly. And you can see here, it’s giving you, first off, it’ll let you know when to wrap it. It’ll give you 15 minutes to wrap it. And if you do it fast, you can let it know and it’ll proceed. But the great thing is, let’s send this recipe to the grill. The great thing is that we want to be true dynamic automation, just like a Tesla self-driving car. So what does that mean? Yes, it will follow steps. It’ll control the temperature, it’ll let you know when to do something like wrapping or spritzing it. But what if you don’t do it, right? So if you’re cooking overnight, you’re fast asleep or you’re talking to your friends or maybe you’re out with your kids, with your family. So it will let you know when to wrap it. But if you don’t wrap it, it’ll detect, “Hey, no one wrapped this brisket.” So I’ll adapt to the make, understand that this brisket has not been wrapped.
Allison: How does it know I didn’t wrap it?
Christopher Huang: It’ll know that no inputs, no interaction was done with the grill.
Allison: Okay, it just doesn’t know that, or it knows that I didn’t take it out.
Christopher Huang: Exactly. And speaking of taking it out, when the food’s done cooking, let’s say you did it overnight and it cooked a little bit faster than you expected. It cooked at, maybe finished cooking at 6 a.m. Maybe like me, I’m not so much an early riser, so I may have slept through my alarms, I didn’t wake up. Well, it’ll detect, “Hey, no one came to come get this brisket, and this brisket’s done cooking.” So I’m going to reduce the temperature, make sure it doesn’t overcook. So when I do wake up, let’s say, let’s be a little bit generous, 8 a.m., then I can still come back.
Allison: Sure you will.
Christopher Huang: Exactly. I can still come back to a fully not overcooked, not overdone brisket.
Allison: I noticed that the recipe, what we’re seeing on this simulation of the app here, we see 225 degrees. It’s got a bunch of information going on, and that’s now moved over to the brisket itself, correct? We can see it on a display here?
Christopher Huang: This is paired. The data, of course, is simulated because we cannot just smoke up the convention, but yes, this is representative of a real cook.
Allison: Okay, so can you show us the inside? What does this look like? Where do you put in the pellets and such?
Christopher Huang: Yes, so the pellets do go in here. It’s a 22-pound hopper, and you can see that we have a folded shelf with a laser-cut accent, a high-temp matte-backed plate, and you can see a high-resolution digital screen. Of course, this is 580 square inches of cooking space, and it can go up to 500 degrees or as low as 165.
Allison: Now, I think I heard you telling somebody that you have different-sized Brisk Its?
Christopher Huang: Exactly. So this one here is probably the most popular size. It’s the Origin 580, or it’s a variant of Origin 580. This has been a variant of this that’s been on the market since 2022, but what we’re actually really excited about unveiling today is, if you can see the back there, it’s called a Zelos model, which is a smaller, more entry-level, and it’s at the $399 price point. It will be coming out later this year. And the great thing about it is, our tagline is “Everyone’s Smart Grill,” because we really want everyone, no matter what their budget is, what their skill level, their time availability is, to be able to cook great homemade barbecue. So that one, in terms of software, is not de-featured in a single slightest, compared to this one here.
Allison: It’s not de-featured, meaning it has all the same features?
Christopher Huang: Same AI technology, no artificial limitations over our marketing.
Allison: Did I really hear $399? That is something people can afford.
Christopher Huang: Exactly. You know, there is always the…
Allison: Don’t raise the price, because I said that.
Christopher Huang: No, no, no. Yeah, there’s always a pattern of, you know, when you have a very new technology, very advanced technology, you want to charge a premium for it. But we actually take the different approach where we want to be accessible, right? Everyone’s Smart Grill. We really believe that mantra.
Allison: I can’t see that one over this one. Is that one smaller over there?
Christopher Huang: It is smaller. It’s 450 square inches versus this one, which is 580. But 450 inches is still enough to fit a whole pack of brisket.
Allison: Okay. How about a turkey? How big of a turkey could you fit in there?
Christopher Huang: I think you could fit most turkeys. You know, maybe if a turkey went to the gym pretty hard, you know, it might be a tight squeeze.
Allison: Or porked out.
Christopher Huang: Yeah, exactly. But, you know, it’ll fit the vast majority of cooking use cases.
Allison: This is really, really interesting. So it’s called Brisk It, two words. And what’s the website?
Christopher Huang: briskItgrills.com, as well as most of these grills will be available on homedepot.com, lowes.com, as well as many other big box retailers.
Allison: Yeah, that’s genius. That’s where you definitely want to be, because that’s where we’re going to walk by and pick out the next one. Thank you very much, Christopher. This is really, really cool.
Christopher Huang: Thank you. Thank you for coming.