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FORTUNE.COM // JUNE.1.19
APP IN MY GRILL
CHARRED
AMERICANS’ love of grill-
ing is as strong as ever,
crossing cultures and
generations. But these
days, a growing number
of backyard barbecue
chefs are clutching
a smartphone app
alongside their tongs.
Thanks to a new
generation of “smart
grills,” it’s possible to
tend slow-roastingCapturing
the Valley
From Above
By Alex ScimeccaPHOTOGRAPHY “WHAT’S REALLY INTERESTING to me is that Apple
has this spaceship aura amongst the greenery,” aerial
photographer Cameron Davidson recently told Fortune. “It’s typical
Apple [with] their attention to detail.” Silicon Valley’s tech campuses
house some of the world’s brightest minds, solving its hardest prob-
lems. Davidson sees those big ideas translating to the buildings that
house them—architecture as a reflection of a company’s mission and
characteristics. But not every design earns his praise. He describes
Facebook’s sprawling Menlo Park campus as “meandering fingers.”slabs of meat from in-
side your house or even
from your car. Traeger,
a Salt Lake City–based
maker of wood-pellet-
powered grills that
start at $800, promises
“digitally controlled
convection” heating.
According to CEO
Jeremy Andrus, app-
based cooking offers
convenience and even
a social networking
element: “There’s a
gamification angle.
You can check in and
see who in the neigh-borhood is cooking the
most ribs.” Traeger
is not the only one
targeting high-tech
grill-meisters. Luxury
barbecue maker
Lynx, whose high-end
model tops $10,000,
offers a SmartGrill app
for iOS and Android,
while Char-Broil,
whose charcoal cook-
ers are a backyard
fixture—is offering
digital grills that come
with a SmartChef
Smoker app.
—JEFF JOHN ROBERTS