GE Appliances didn’t set out to create an indoor smoker, or win awards, or establish a partnership with recently selected James Beard Award semifinalist Dallas McGarity.
It just happened.
When the team at FirstBuild — GE Appliances microfactory and makerspace located on the University of Louisville’s campus — bought an old 1950s GE Appliances refrigerator off Facebook, gutted it, and had the idea to turn it into a smoker, nobody envisioned the product would become a household commodity years later.
“Our team did that just mainly for fun and interest and kind of exercising some of the maker muscles that we have here,” Chris Naber, the director of product development for FirstBuild and Small Appliances, told the Courier Journal. “We just did it as a fun team-building thing.”
After the old fridge, standing roughly five feet high and tricked out with a tailpipe from a Honda Civic, was engineered to smoke, the FirstBuild squad enjoyed barbecue every Wednesday.
Until winter came.
The team, longing for the days spent bonding over smoked meats at lunch turned to look for a way to bring their passion project indoors. They began experimenting with the idea of an indoor smoker. The technology around eliminating smoke already existed from the Monogram Hearth Oven and could be applied to an indoor smoker.
The group cobbled together a working prototype.
“We know that creating something new and different is hard, and they’re not all going to be great,” Naber said. “We’ve been given the freedom to try and fail with the intent of failing enough along the way that we learn and find winners.”
By this point, Naber and his team still didn’t envision this as a consumer product. But as more and more people visited FirstBuild and continued to be drawn to the indoor smoking machine, the team started tinkering and crowdfunding the small appliance, eventually going through several iterations and roughly 1,200 backers before reaching the final model of the product sold today.
The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker, which retails for $999 and is part of Louisville-based GE Appliances’ small appliance division, allows people without an outdoor barbecue setup and those looking to avoid the rain or cold a chance to smoke foods year-round.
‘It was really important to us to have a local partner’
For a product like this, which Andre Zdanow, the executive director of small appliances with FirstBuild and Co-Create, described as both “polarizing” and “passionate,” it was obvious that to best promote the product, it needed a compelling partner.
GE Appliances worked with McGarity, the owner and chef at The Fat Lamb Modern Kitchen and Bar in the Highlands neighborhood to create a cookbook — “Indoor Smoker. Outdoor Flavor.” — that provides consumers with recipes and directions on how to smoke everything from classic wings and salmon to Brussels sprouts and even a peach cobbler. The 16 cookbook recipes are specifically tailored to the indoor smoker and even provide details on what wood pellets are best to use and smoke level setting.
“It starts with being passionate about something, in this case, it was smoked foods, but what chef did was allow us to partner with someone local and bring [the] product credibility,” Zdanow said. “It was really important to us to have a local partner … and then you’ve got someone like chef Dallas here in Louisville, I mean, that’s a dream for us.”
That dream was mutual. A South Carolina native, McGarity has always had a passion for “exploring and creating food” with family. The indoor smoker allows him to combine that passion with his expansive culinary skills and share it with the public.
“It’s one of those things where people can do this at home without that intimidation of losing their entire dinner, but they can have a lot of fun doing it and have a family experience,” McGarity said. “That’s what it’s about for me and I wanted to make that clear in the recipes, too.”
McGarity said he went through lots of “trial and error” while playing around, crafting recipes, and mastering the first-of-its-kind cooking apparatus. Now, he has one in his restaurant that he plays with and uses as a supplementary tool.
Every smoker purchased will come with one of McGarity’s cookbooks along with a bag of wood pellets. The smoker can cook up to 40 chicken wings, three racks of baby back ribs, a whole chicken, a brisket, or a 14-pound pork butt at once.
What’s next for the indoor smoker?
GE Appliances recently took the indoor smoker to Las Vegas for the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show, where it won 20 awards.
“It stole the show,” Zdanow said. “When the tech community looked across the landscape of what is the latest in innovation … they resoundingly said, ‘We love the indoor smoker. It’s a disrupter. It’s a game-changer. We didn’t expect it, but we love it anyway.'”
And this is just the beginning for the indoor smoker.
FirstBuild, popularly known for its 2015 invention of the Opal Nugget Ice Maker, appears to have once again created the next hot kitchen appliance. Rather than slow down and enjoy the early success, the team is eagerly working on accessories and additional features for potential future models.
“It feels like the most successful product launch we’ve ever done,” Zdanow said. “This is who we are … we drive innovation here and we don’t sacrifice a darn thing to partner with local experts because they are among the best in the world.”
Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @oliviamevans_.
Smoked curry Brussels sprouts recipe from ‘Indoor Smoker. Outdoor Flavor’
This recipe was created specifically for use in the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker:
Ingredients:
2 pounds Brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons melted butter
Instructions:
Preheat smoker to 300 degrees.
Trim, clean, and half the Brussels sprouts. Pat them dry with a paper towel.
In a large bowl, add the Brussels sprouts and toss well with all the other ingredients, minus the butter.
Place on a grill sheet/disposable pan/heavy-duty aluminum foil with the edges turned up to make a pan.
Cook in the smoker for about 30-45 minutes until they become fork tender. Remove from the smoker and place under a broiler at high heat for about 5-7 minutes to get them nice and crisp.
Once done, toss them in a bowl with melted butter.
