Our Story
It Started with BraaiCraft
BraaiCraft Smokehouse did not begin with a restaurant menu. It began with a fascination with fire and a desire to build better equipment for cooking with it.
BraaiCraft manufactures grills, smokers, firepits, outdoor kitchens and other equipment built around fire, heat and cooking. Our interest has always been in understanding how fire can be used as a cooking medium and then translating that understanding into equipment that is practical, dependable and capable of producing great food. Designing and manufacturing the equipment was one part of that journey, but we soon realised that there was another important part: actually using what we built.
A grill or smoker can look impressive in a workshop or catalogue, but its real character only becomes apparent when there is a fire burning inside it and food cooking. We wanted our customers to be able to see our equipment working, understand how it was designed to work and, most importantly, experience the food that could be produced on it. That led us to the idea of creating an experience centre where our equipment would not simply be displayed, but put to work. Read on for our story…
The original idea was straightforward. We would build our grills, smokers and firepits, install them at an experience centre and invite potential customers to see them in operation. Instead of explaining what a particular grill could do, we could demonstrate it. Instead of talking about the advantages of cooking over fire, we could put food on the grill and let people experience the result for themselves.
It quickly became apparent that cooking was the best way to demonstrate the equipment. We began spending more time experimenting with different cooking methods, temperatures, fires and techniques. The equipment became our classroom, and every cook taught us something about how it behaved. We learnt how different fires affected cooking, how heat moved through a smoker, how much preparation was required before cooking and how small changes in temperature, airflow and technique could influence the final result.
The more we cooked, the more interesting the idea became. People who came to see the equipment were not only interested in the grills and smokers; they were equally interested in what was coming off them. They wanted to understand the food, the cooking process and the experience of eating something prepared over real fire. What had started as a way to demonstrate our products was beginning to become an experience in its own right.
That experience centre became the beginning of BraaiCraft Smokehouse in Shanag, Manali. Manali was a deliberate choice. Its weather, its natural setting and the steady flow of visitors made it an interesting place to demonstrate outdoor cooking throughout the year. We wanted to know how our equipment would perform not only on a pleasant summer afternoon, but in the kind of conditions where cooking over fire becomes genuinely challenging.
And Manali certainly provided those conditions. Over the course of our time there, we grilled and smoked through rain, worked with our firepits in strong winds and continued cooking through winters that brought around three feet of snow. What started as an experience centre therefore became an unexpected proving ground for our equipment. Our grills, smokers and firepits performed not merely as we had designed them to, but in many situations better than we had technically expected them to. The environment gave us a level of real-world testing that no workshop or controlled demonstration could have replicated.
At the same time, the response from visitors continued to grow. People came to see the equipment, but they stayed for the food and the experience. They were curious about cooking over fire and enjoyed seeing the process rather than simply receiving a finished dish from a conventional kitchen. Within a few months, it became clear that there was something more here than an equipment showroom with food. The experience centre gradually evolved into a gourmet restaurant.
The Smokehouse in Manali was never designed to operate like a conventional restaurant. The way we cooked determined the way the restaurant had to operate. We worked on reservations because the grills and smokers had to be prepared well before guests arrived, fires had to be established and cooking temperatures brought under control, and the preparation had to be planned around the number of people we were expecting.
That preparation was an important part of the experience. Cooking over fire cannot simply be switched on when an order comes in. The fire needs to be built, managed and understood. Smokers need time to reach the right conditions. Grills need to be prepared. Certain preparations need to begin long before the cooking itself. The process therefore started well before the first guest arrived.
Operating this way also reinforced something we had begun to understand through BraaiCraft: fire is not just a source of heat. It is part of the cooking process. The type of fire, the temperature, airflow, distance from the heat, cooking time and technique all influence the final result. The Smokehouse gave us the opportunity to explore those variables every day and to understand them not as theory, but through actual cooking.
The Smokehouse became much more than a place to demonstrate our products. It became a place where we could continuously learn.
Every grill taught us something. Every smoker behaved slightly differently. Every fire presented its own set of conditions. Cooking on the equipment we designed allowed us to understand what worked, what could be improved and how the equipment performed when it was being used repeatedly, rather than simply demonstrated occasionally.
That relationship between manufacturing and cooking became an important part of the BraaiCraft philosophy. We were no longer simply building equipment and then handing it over to someone else. We were building it, cooking on it, learning from the experience and using those observations to improve our understanding of fire and cooking.
In many ways, the Smokehouse became a practical extension of BraaiCraft itself. The workshop allowed us to build the tools; the kitchen allowed us to understand them.
Our interest in fire-led cooking also grew beyond the equipment itself. Cooking with fire is one of the oldest culinary traditions in the world, yet the ways different cultures have approached it are remarkably varied. From direct grilling and open-fire cooking to slow roasting, smoking, spit roasting and cooking with embers, people have developed countless techniques around the same basic element.
We draw inspiration from these traditions because they demonstrate how much can be achieved with fire when it is understood rather than simply used as a heat source. Fire changes the way food cooks. Smoke introduces another layer. Time allows flavours and textures to develop. Fat, moisture, temperature and technique all interact with the heat source to create something that cannot always be replicated by simply turning up an oven.
That is what continues to fascinate us about live-fire cooking. There is a certain amount of unpredictability in working with fire, but there is also a great deal that can be understood, controlled and refined. The craft lies in learning where those two meet.
One of the biggest lessons from cooking this way is that not everything should be rushed. Some preparations benefit from brining. Some require curing or dry-ageing. Smoking and slow roasting need time, while resting can be just as important as the cooking itself. These processes are not done slowly simply to make the food sound more elaborate. They are given time because the process itself contributes to the final result.
For us, time is another cooking tool. The objective is not to make everything take as long as possible; it is to give each process the amount of time it actually needs. Sometimes that may be relatively quick, while at other times the preparation and cooking may begin well before the food reaches the customer.
This approach has remained with us from the first Smokehouse in the mountains to the kitchen we operate today. Fire, smoke, time and technique continue to be at the centre of how we think about cooking.
After about a year in Manali, we realised that the concept had developed beyond what we had originally imagined. The Smokehouse had started as a way to demonstrate BraaiCraft equipment, evolved into an experience centre and then grown into a gourmet restaurant. The response gave us confidence that the idea could work beyond a mountain destination and reach a much larger audience.
That led us to Gurgaon.
Rather than simply opening another conventional restaurant, we evolved the model once again and established BraaiCraft Smokehouse as a gourmet cloud kitchen focused on delivery and takeaway. The format allowed us to take the food to a much larger audience while continuing to build on everything we had learnt in Manali.
Importantly, the Gurgaon Smokehouse also continues to serve as an experience centre for BraaiCraft. The relationship between the two sides of the business remains exactly where it began: BraaiCraft builds the equipment, and BraaiCraft Smokehouse puts that equipment to work.
There is a simple reason we cook on BraaiCraft grills and smokers: we believe the best way to understand cooking equipment is to actually use it.
The same equipment that we design and manufacture is used in our own kitchen. This gives us the opportunity to experience our products from the cook’s side, day after day and fire after fire. We can see how they perform, understand their strengths, identify areas that can be improved and continue developing our knowledge of live-fire cooking.
That creates a continuous relationship between the workshop and the kitchen. We build the equipment, cook on it, learn from the cooking and take those lessons back into what we build. The process then begins again.
The Smokehouse is therefore not separate from BraaiCraft. It is an extension of it — a place where the things we design and manufacture become part of the food we serve.
Today, BraaiCraft Smokehouse represents the continuation of a journey that began with building equipment for cooking over fire. What started as an experience centre in the mountains became a restaurant because people connected with the food and the concept. That experience eventually led us to Gurgaon, where the Smokehouse has evolved into a gourmet delivery and takeaway kitchen while continuing to serve as an experience centre for BraaiCraft.
The equipment has changed, the locations have changed and the way we reach our customers has changed, but the central idea has remained remarkably consistent: understand fire, build the right tools for it, cook with those tools and keep learning.
Every order that leaves the Smokehouse is therefore connected to a much longer process — from design and fabrication to fire management, preparation, cooking and finally the food arriving at your table.
What began with building grills and smokers ultimately led us to cooking on them, learning from them and sharing that experience with others.
This is the craft of BraaiCraft, brought from our grills to your table.
