From Kenya to Bricknic, how did that happen? Read here how the traditional Kenyan brick kiln inspired founder Timm Donke to come up with the Cooking Brick. Where the bricks are stacked into pyramid kilns and then taken apart together again. This naturally requires a sense of community, and that is also an important goal for Bricknic.
In this blog you will read the story of Timm and how he has brought his company Bricknic to where it is today.
The story behind Bricknic
The idea arose during a trip through Kenya, where you saw how bricks were stacked to build kilns. What was the moment when you thought: I can translate this into a cooking product?
Timm: Yes, that's right. I was traveling through Kenya during a project I was working on. As I traveled through the Kenyan countryside, I saw stacks of stacked bricks everywhere along the roads in villages. I was fascinated by these structures, which can become quite large, and wondered what they were intended for. Until I understood that they are actually improvised kilns to bake bricks. It is the traditional way to make bricks, just as it was done here hundreds of years ago. It is a beautiful traditional, simple, but very effective and artisanal process.
What I found particularly special about it was that the bricks are made from clay soil, shaped by hand into molds, dried, and then all stacked on top of each other to build a large temporary brick kiln. The construction of that kiln consists exclusively of these sun-dried bricks, without any additional support structure made of metal, wood, or anything else. Only the bricks that are to be fired themselves.
The structure usually has a number of large openings in which wood is placed. When everything is ready, the wood is lit inside the kiln structure and the fire is kept burning at a very high temperature for several days, until the heat has fired all the dried bricks rock-hard and they are ready to be used for building a house.
What fascinated me was that the entire kiln of stacked bricks is practically dismantled during the process, so that at the end the entire structure has disappeared and a finished house is created. Of course, the fired bricks and the house do not appear by themselves. Many people are needed to carefully build everything and create the structures. Traditionally, this is done by the village community or by the family for whom the house is being built.
Amazing! A truly temporary group process to make bricks from earth and build a house with them.
I was so fascinated by this process that I spent a few days with the brickmakers to learn about and understand the process. I knew that I wanted to use this knowledge in some way for a future project.
At the same time, I was studying Food Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and was looking for a graduation project. By combining my interest in food and cooking cultures from around the world with the technical process and my fascination with making bricks, the idea first arose to simply build outdoor ovens.
Back in the Netherlands, I started thinking about my graduation project and my experiences in Kenya. After a period of creativity, trying out different ovens, and brainstorming ideas, this eventually led to the idea of using the bricks themselves as cooking vessels.
Brick No. 1 was born.
I did all kinds of experiments with earth, clay, ceramics, and even salt, using the material to cover the food, make a brick shape out of it, and then fire it. The idea was very simple: cover the food and put the bricks in the fire. The only problem was that after cooking, we always had to break the brick to get to the food. That was very fun and entertaining during some food events, but quite unsustainable in the long term and very time-consuming.
Until the idea arose to simply make the brick hollow. Just like a lunchbox. Two parts, a top and a bottom, that can be opened and closed and reused many times, but are still stackable and modular like a real brick.
After a lot of testing again, this idea proved to work. We even used the Bricks to build ovens during our food events, where many Bricks were stacked on top of each other around a fire to cook for many people at once. One Brick for every person.
I organized a number of events and this worked very well. So well, in fact, that after the events guests asked if they could buy the Bricks to use at home.
Then I understood that we could make a real product out of this.
The Bricknic Cooking Brick had been invented. :)
Is there still a connection with Kenya, the place where your idea originated?
Yes, I personally travel to Kenya regularly. My trips to East Africa have had a major influence on both my professional and personal life, as my wife comes from the Lake Victoria region in Kenya.
There are now even places in Kenya where the Bricks are already being used. For example, there is an eco-travel safari lodge that uses the Bricks as part of the safari experience.
We have also given a number of Bricks to local brickmakers. In addition, we visited a local potter, an artisan woman whom we asked to handcraft a brick-shaped cooking vessel for us.
We have plans to make our products available on a larger scale on the African continent one day, perhaps even by building production of the Cooking Brick there. Kenya seems to be a fast-growing market as a country, with a rapidly growing middle class. That could be an interesting opportunity to develop business activities in precisely the country that inspired the invention of the Bricknic Cooking Brick.
From a traditional building technique to a consumer product is a big step. What was the biggest challenge in actually translating that idea into the cooking stone that exists today?
The biggest challenge was, as so often, production. Especially finding a shape and design that actually works within mass production. Our Bricks are pressed from clay, which brings different challenges and limitations for the design, because the production method must technically be able to produce the shape. As we came to understand along the way, rectangular, straight shapes are generally very difficult to produce. Clay is a natural material and naturally tends to take on organic, rounded shapes. That is important to understand why cups, plates, clay pots, and many other ceramic products are usually round in shape.
It was a big challenge to find a design that works under these circumstances and at the same time allows for a good sealing mechanism and straight walls. As is true with many things: as soon as you really dive deep into the technical side of designing a new product, the process becomes quite complex. There are so many different parameters and components that need to be thought through, understood, and then combined, so that eventually a well-finished product is created.
We made a huge number of different prototypes, each of which had its own mistakes and weaknesses. Some were too thin, some cracked, some broke through the heat, some deformed during production, some were too small, and others too large. Understanding ceramic mass production is an intensive process in which chemical, physical, and technical knowledge come together to ensure that all parameters eventually work well together.
To be completely honest, this takes years, even though the Bricks eventually look so simple. It took many years to make the product as it is today. And we are still constantly improving details in the production process, the material, the colors, and so on, to make the product even better in the future.
Were there moments when you doubted whether this concept would appeal outside the context in which you first saw it?
Definitely :) I think that as a maker and inventor you always have doubts about whether the concept works, whether it is good enough, and whether people will even like or understand it. It is as if an idea gets its reality check in the real world, and that can sometimes be quite harsh. But that is also the beauty of it: understanding that creating a new product is an ongoing process. It really never stops.
One of my mentors once taught me that you literally have to become your concept. What I mean by that is that everything you do, think, and feel becomes connected in one way or another to the idea you are trying to develop. That can be quite intense. In our case, that was modular Bricks. :)) Everywhere you go, you see bricks. And it is fascinating that even now, with such a simple rectangular shape, new insights, stories, and ideas around this product are still emerging. Sometimes by chance, sometimes because someone tells us something. But it seems as though the inspiration never stops.
Sometimes it feels as though the Cooking Brick is just the first part of the LEGO of the kitchen. There are so many possibilities to further develop this concept of modular cooking with clay bricks, that we could spend countless hours thinking about new products related to the Bricks, in different shapes, variations, and functions.
At some point, it even becomes a bit geeky, but I think that is exactly what makes it so fascinating and makes it possible to invent new things.
As an inventor and creative person, you almost have to be obsessed with your idea to make it work, despite all resistance from the outside world. People will tell you that it will not work, that no one will buy it, or give all kinds of other reasons why it cannot succeed. At the same time, as an entrepreneur, you have to be very open to external feedback, adapt, and sometimes let go of your own ideas to make the product better and let the company grow.
Let's just say it is a very difficult and challenging task to constantly weigh all the different possibilities and opinions, both your own and those of others, against each other to make an idea work! It is not easy, but when it works, it is enormously rewarding!
About the product and craftsmanship
If you compare the Bricknic to a regular oven dish: what can the cooking stone do that an oven dish cannot?
That is simple: the Brick can steam food. That is something a regular oven dish normally cannot do, because it usually consists of only one part. The Brick has a lid that can be closed, so that the moisture stays inside and the food cooks gently and evenly. The use of our natural clay also has the advantage that the moisture is retained in the material, and the contents therefore cook very evenly. You notice this, for example, when you prepare vegetables in the Bricks. They cook very evenly and stay nice and juicy, but still retain their firmness. It is a very pleasant way of cooking and the taste is very good. Try it yourself, then you will understand what I mean. :)
When cooking in an oven dish, it is usually more about baking. The food is heated from above, and because there is no lid, the moisture evaporates and the food can dry out.
You even see that people sometimes try to prevent this by covering an oven dish with aluminum foil. You do not need to do that with the Brick, because it has a perfectly fitting clay lid. On the other hand, if you want a crispy crust, you simply take the lid off in the last few minutes so that the heat from the oven can reach the dish from above. Then you get a super tasty crust.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, you can use the Brick on virtually any heat source! It does not matter whether it is a campfire while camping, a charcoal or gas barbecue, the kitchen oven, the microwave, or a stove. Thanks to the fireproof clay, the Brick is resistant to temperatures up to 600 degrees. Of course, your food never needs to be cooked that hot, we do not want to burn it :) Because of this, the Brick can be used in almost every conceivable way.
You can prepare an endless number of dishes in it, from simple vegetables to fish and meat. It works great for stews, bread, lasagna, and all kinds of desserts such as crème brûlée, rice pudding, cake, and basically anything else you can think of. For inspiration and recipes, you can check out our Instagram or website, where we regularly share what people are preparing in the Bricks. It is really fascinating to see all the recipes people come up with.
You could say that the Bricknic Cooking Brick is a real multi-tool that works in almost every conceivable situation and with almost every conceivable ingredient. That is no exaggeration, it is precisely the real value of the product and of the rectangular design. Everything you can think of could possibly be possible. We will only know when we try it. :) Just try it, you will be amazed how often it actually works!
What is the most beautiful dish you have ever seen come out of a Bricknic stone, something you thought: I never expected this?
Oh yes, there are constant surprises. I personally see all the videos and photos that people share with us. It is my favorite thing to do!! There are literally new recipes and food creations every day that I have never seen before. It is enormously inspiring to see what the Bricknic community cooks and creates!
But my three absolute favorite Brick dishes of all time are:
1. Bricknic French Brioche, simply amazing!
2. Bricknic salmon with vegetables, simple but always good.
3. A Brick lasagna from the grill, because it is now possible to make lasagna on the barbecue. Simply amazing.
In general, there is another advantage that I would like to mention. The Brick makes it possible to prepare dishes outdoors on the grill that are normally made in a kitchen oven. This truly reinvents outdoor cooking.
This takes every barbecue or garden party to a higher level. Imagine: instead of serving your friends the typical barbecue classics, you can surprise them with a lasagna that was prepared outdoors directly on the grill over the fire. And the cook can simply stay outside with the guests.
If you have to explain to someone what happens with the taste of food that cooks in clay, how do you describe that?
When you prepare food in clay bricks, it cooks very evenly and gently. The heat is first absorbed by the thicker clay walls of the Brick and then distributed evenly all around thanks to the excellent heat distribution and heat storage of clay. The food cooks gently without losing flavor. Some people even say that the flavor becomes stronger. We do not know that for sure, but we think that this has to do with the natural properties of clay.
Cooking in clay is an ancient preparation method that has been proven effective for centuries. Clay cooking vessels are known from virtually every culture and historical period around the world. You could say that the first clay pots were made even before metal was used at all. This natural way of cooking lets the ingredients taste very pure.
If I had to describe the taste of food from a Brick in a few words, I would say: pure, authentic, balanced, real, clear, and simply delicious. The best thing is to try it yourself.
We have seen reactions from people who compare it to a tagine, which is also made of clay, of course.
Are there dishes where you say: this tastes really different from the Bricknic than from a pan or from the bbq?
Yes, absolutely. I think lasagna is once again the best example. Normally, you would never think of making lasagna directly on a barbecue or over an open fire, but with the Bricknic, you can. Because the Brick protects the food from direct heat and distributes the heat evenly, the lasagna cooks slowly inside while all the moisture and flavors stay together. At the end, you can simply remove the lid to get that delicious roasted and crispy cheese crust on top. It is amazing and actually combines the flavors of typical oven dishes with the characteristic smoky flavor you get when cooking on the grill or over an open fire.
Another very good example is bread. Baking bread in clay is nothing new, of course; it has been done for centuries. The enclosed clay Brick creates a warm and moist environment around the dough, giving you a beautiful crust while the bread remains soft and moist inside. And there is something very special about the moment you take freshly baked bread directly out of a clay Brick from the fire.
Stews are also fantastic. Everything cooks slowly together in the enclosed Brick, and because almost nothing can escape, all the juices, spices, and flavors stay inside. Especially when cooking for a longer time, you really notice how all the ingredients come together to form one dish while still retaining their own flavor.
So yes, I would definitely say that there are dishes that taste different. But for me, it is also about opening up completely new possibilities. Suddenly, you can prepare dishes outdoors over an open fire that normally belong in the kitchen oven. That combination of cooking in clay, fire, and ingredients that slowly cook together creates something very special.
Have you developed a favorite dish or ritual yourself since you started clay cooking, something you now love to prepare this way?
Yes, my favorite is the classic Bricknic potatoes. Over time, that dish has actually grown into the signature dish of Bricknic. It is so simple, and that is exactly why it is so good. Just take some small potatoes, a little oil or butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Put everything in the Brick, close it, and place it on the heat source. You will be amazed at how good something so simple can taste. It is no wonder we keep seeing this dish over and over again on our social media. Simple, delicious, good!
About material and origin
Clay is one of the oldest cooking materials there is. What fascinates you about the idea that people have been preparing food this way for centuries?
Yes, clay cookware is used all over the world, in almost every culture and virtually every period of history, to prepare food. I find that incredibly fascinating. If you look back through history, long before we had modern metal cookware, electric ovens, or gas stoves, people already understood that clay was a fantastic material for preparing food.
What I find particularly interesting is that this knowledge developed independently in so many different places around the world. You find clay cooking pots in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. They all look different and have their own shapes, traditions, and uses, but the basic principle is often very similar. You take a natural material from the earth, shape it into a vessel, fire it, and suddenly you have a highly effective tool for preparing food.
There is something incredibly simple and beautiful about that.
When you think about it, clay is actually earth that is transformed by fire into a cooking tool. Then you use that same tool again with fire to prepare your food. There are very few materials where the connection between the material, the production process, and the way you use the final product is so direct.
What also fascinates me is that the physical principles still work perfectly after thousands of years. Clay absorbs heat and distributes it, retains heat for a long time, and creates a very gentle cooking environment. Since then, we have invented so many new materials and technologies, but we still use clay because the basic principle is simply very good.
For me, the Bricknic Cooking Brick is in a way a continuation of this very old tradition, but translated into a contemporary product. We did not invent cooking with clay, of course. People have been doing it for thousands of years. What we are trying to do is give the centuries-old qualities of cooking with clay a new form and function that fits the way we cook today.
Perhaps that is also why the product feels familiar in some way, even though the rectangular Cooking Brick itself is something completely different. There is something almost instinctive about placing food in a clay vessel, closing it, and then putting it in the heat or directly in the fire.
I also think it is a beautiful thought that when someone today puts a Bricknic on the fire, fills it with ingredients, and prepares a meal together with friends, that basic action actually does not differ that much from what people have been doing for centuries. The environment has changed, the recipes have changed, and our lives have completely changed, but that simple relationship between clay, fire, food, and people still exists.
For me, that connection between something very old and something contemporary is probably one of the most fascinating aspects of Bricknic. It shows that innovation does not always have to mean inventing something completely new. Sometimes innovation can also mean looking back at something that has worked for centuries, understanding why it works so well, and then finding a new way to bring it into the present.
Do you notice that people look at their food differently once they have prepared it this artisanal way?
I have no hard evidence for that, but my observations and experience give me the feeling that people appreciate their food much more when it is prepared with care and based on certain values. I think that as soon as you become more involved in the process of preparing your food, you automatically develop a stronger connection with what you eat.
Cooking with clay is naturally slower and more mindful. You prepare the ingredients, fill the Brick, close it, put it on the fire or in the oven, and then give it time to cook. You cannot constantly intervene in the dish. In a certain way, you have to trust the process, the material, and the heat. I think this creates a completely different relationship with cooking than simply heating something up quickly and eating it.
This connects us much more strongly with our food and deepens the understanding of cooking and the ingredients themselves. You start thinking more about where ingredients come from, how they react to heat, how different flavors work together, and how something very simple can become special when it is prepared with care.
I am also convinced that this ultimately benefits the taste, because more care and dedication have been put into the cooking. Scientifically speaking, adding extra love to your food does not automatically change its chemical composition :) But I truly believe that our taste experience is connected to much more than just the ingredients. The preparation, the aroma, the fire, the people around you, the anticipation, and the moment you open the Brick are all part of the experience of eating.
There is also something very satisfying about the moment you put simple raw ingredients in the Brick and open it later to discover the finished dish. Especially when you cook together with friends or family, opening the Brick becomes a little moment in itself. Everyone wants to see what has happened inside, smell it, and taste it. It creates curiosity around the food.
Perhaps this is something we have somewhat lost in our fast-paced and convenient modern food culture. Food is available almost everywhere and at any time, which is of course a huge luxury, but it can also create distance between us and the actual process of preparing food. When you cook with fire and clay, you return to something much more fundamental. You have ingredients, heat, time, and a cooking vessel, and you have to bring those things together to create your meal.
So yes, I think that preparing food in a more artisanal way can make people appreciate it differently. Not because everything has to be complicated or take hours. Some of my favorite Bricknic recipes are actually extremely simple. But you are consciously involved in creating your food.
And maybe that is also why something as simple as potatoes with a little oil, garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper can taste so incredibly delicious from the Brick. It is simple food, prepared with care, in a natural material, and with the time it needs. Sometimes that really is all you need.
Do you see a difference in how people in different countries or cultures cook with clay, and has that influenced your view of Bricknic?
Yes, I always look forward to seeing how people from different cultures use the Bricks. It is actually one of our most important values as a brand that we want to give everyone the space and freedom to use the Bricks however they want.
Precisely because food is so culturally important and therefore can be so different in every culture. Ingredients, spices, preparation methods, and traditions can completely change when you travel from one country to another. And I think that is exactly what makes food so fascinating. There is not one right way to cook. Every culture has developed its own knowledge and traditions over generations.
It is super interesting to see how people in Africa, Asia, Europe, or North and South America use the Bricks to prepare completely different dishes. Someone might use the Brick for a traditional stew, someone else for rice, bread, vegetables, fish, meat, or a dessert. The Brick itself remains exactly the same, but what happens inside can be completely different, depending on where you are and who you are cooking with.
When we go to a new country where we have never been before, we always try to connect with very local chefs and ask them to prepare their own dishes in the Bricks. And surprisingly, that always works wonderfully. We do not want to arrive somewhere and tell people what they should cook in the Brick. It is much more interesting to give someone the Brick and say, 'Here it is, now show us what you would do with it.'
People immediately connect the Brick with their own food culture. That is probably one of the most fascinating things to observe. They do not necessarily see the Brick and think of our recipes. They immediately start thinking about their own recipes, their grandmother's food, local ingredients, or dishes they grew up with. And suddenly, this very simple rectangular clay object becomes part of a completely different food culture.
That has absolutely influenced my view of Bricknic. In the beginning, you naturally think a lot about how you would use the product itself and what you designed it for. But over time, I realized that the real potential lies in the opposite. The more freedom we give people, the more possibilities we discover ourselves.
For me, that is also one of the reasons why the simple shape of the Brick is so important. It does not belong to one specific cuisine. It is not a tagine, Dutch oven, wok, or other cooking vessel that people immediately associate with one particular cooking tradition. It is basically a very simple clay cooking tool that people can interpret in their own way.
I think there is something beautiful about that. Food is extremely cultural, but cooking with clay and fire is almost universal. You find traditions of cooking with clay in so many places around the world. So although recipes and cultures are completely different, this common connection also exists at the same time.
Every time we introduce Bricknic somewhere new, we learn something ourselves. People use ingredients we would never have thought of, develop techniques we did not know, or prepare dishes we never thought could be made in the Brick. Some of those ideas then inspire people in completely different countries.
That is really what we want Bricknic to be. Not a product where we tell everyone exactly what they should cook and how they should use it, but a cooking tool that gives people the freedom to bring their own culture, creativity, and food culture into it. And I think the more cultures cook with the Bricks, the more interesting the whole idea becomes.
About the future
Where do you think Bricknic will be in five years: still mainly an outdoor product, or do you also see it finding a place in the everyday kitchen?
My vision is that in the long term, Bricknic will become the LEGO of the cooking world. We have the ambition to bring modular cooking with Bricks into every kitchen.
It does not matter whether that is indoors or outdoors, at a campsite, at the beach, with friends, alone, or together with your family.
The goal is that everyone on this beautiful planet has a Brick to cook with.
I know that this is a huge ambition, but it is the only way to make my vision a reality!
Of course, that is a very big ambition :) But I think you need a big vision if you want to create something new.
For me, Bricknic was never intended to remain only an outdoor cooking product.
Fire and outdoor cooking are a very natural environment for the Brick, and we think there is something very special about placing a clay Brick directly in the fire and preparing your food that way. But at the same time, I use the Bricks themselves constantly in the regular kitchen. You can put them in the kitchen oven, use them in the microwave, and basically just integrate them into everyday cooking.
My goal is therefore that in five years, people hopefully will no longer make this distinction. It will simply be a cooking tool.
You have your pans, your knives, your plates, and somewhere in your kitchen stand your Cooking Bricks. When the weather is nice, you take them outside and put them on the barbecue. When you go camping, you take one with you and cook over the fire. And on a normal Tuesday evening, you put some ingredients in a Brick and put it in your kitchen oven.
I think this flexibility is very important to the whole idea. We do not want to tell people when, where, or what they should cook. We want to give them a tool with which they can decide for themselves.
And because Bricks are naturally modular, we have many ideas to further increase the modularity of our products in the future. I think things are really starting to get exciting here.
When you look at a normal cooking pot, it is generally designed as a single finished object for a specific purpose. But as soon as you start thinking in Bricks, you can start thinking completely differently. You can think about different sizes, different shapes, different functions, inserts, lids, surfaces, and accessories that can possibly work together.
That is where the comparison with LEGO comes from. LEGO has a very simple principle, but because the individual parts can be connected to each other and interact, the possibilities are almost endless. I think there is an opportunity to apply a similar philosophy to cooking.
Imagine having different Cooking Bricks in your kitchen that you can choose depending on what you want to prepare. A small Brick for an individual portion, a larger Brick for a family meal, different shapes for different dishes, or different inserts that create completely new cooking functions. You could prepare multiple dishes at the same time, serve directly from the Bricks, or combine different elements into a complete cooking system.
And we are still only at the beginning of understanding what is all possible.
That is also something I personally find incredibly exciting as an inventor. As soon as you create a basic system instead of just one individual product, every new idea can potentially become a new part of that system. One product can inspire another product, and suddenly you are no longer designing separate objects, but building a family of products that can work together.
There really is no limit to our creativity here. At the same time, I think it's important that we never lose the simplicity of the original idea. Bricknic must not become complicated. The beauty of the Cooking Brick lies precisely in the fact that it is such a simple object. You put ingredients in, close it, and place it on the heat source. That simplicity must always remain at the core of what we do.
Innovation can take place around that simplicity. And I think there is another important aspect to our future. We want to continue connecting traditional craftsmanship and natural materials with contemporary product design. We work with clay, one of the oldest materials people have ever used for cooking, but we are trying to think about it in a completely new and modern way.
For me, that combination is incredibly powerful. We don't necessarily need more electronic devices in our kitchens. Sometimes innovation can also mean going back to a very simple and proven material and asking yourself what else you can do with it.
That's why I believe Bricknic can have a place both outdoors and in the everyday kitchen. Actually, I hope that eventually people won't even ask whether it is an indoor or outdoor product. It should just go with you and fit the way you want to cook.
As mentioned before: maybe you use it at home during the week, take it into the garden on Saturday, take it to the beach with friends in the summer, and cook with it over a campfire during your vacation. The same object can become part of all these different moments.
And ultimately, that is the vision behind Bricknic: creating a modular cooking world around something incredibly simple, the Brick.
So where do I see Bricknic in five years? Hopefully in many more kitchens, gardens, restaurants, and campsites, and around many more fires all over the world. And hopefully with a much larger family of Cooking Bricks and modular products around it.
We have many ideas about where this can go, probably more ideas than we can produce at the moment :) But that is also what makes building Bricknic so exciting. Every new Brick, every new feature, and every person who finds a completely new way to use it adds another little piece to this larger idea.
Are there new shapes, sizes, or applications of the cooking stone that you are currently thinking about?
Always, haha :) New ideas for new products are constantly emerging. Actually, that is probably one of the hardest things for us: not coming up with new ideas, but deciding which ideas we should actually focus on and which ones we should develop.
As soon as you start to see the Cooking Brick as a modular system instead of a single individual product, a huge number of possibilities emerge. Different sizes, different shapes, different colors, different inserts, accessories, and completely different applications. We have notebooks and folders full of ideas, sketches, and prototypes, and new ideas are constantly being added.
At the moment, however, our main focus is on distributing the three existing sizes as well as possible: the Mini, the Original, and the Large. We have spent many years developing and improving these products, and we think that these three sizes already offer a very nice range of possibilities. The Mini is perfect for smaller portions, side dishes, desserts, or individual servings. The Original is our classic all-rounder, and the Large opens up completely different possibilities for larger dishes, family meals, bread, lasagna, larger stews, and cooking for multiple people.
For us, it is important not only to develop new products to have something new. Every addition must really make sense within the Bricknic world and add a new feature or possibility to the way people use the Bricks.
For example, we recently launched a wooden serving tray with which you can carry the Brick and place it directly on the table. That sounds like a very simple addition, but it changes the experience quite a bit. The Brick goes directly from the heat source to the table, and suddenly the cooking vessel also becomes part of the serving experience. You open the Brick at the table, everyone can see and smell what is inside, and people can share the food directly from the Brick.
We also recently introduced our stainless steel Steam Inlay, which can be placed in the Original Brick. This creates even more cooking possibilities, because you can separate the ingredients from the bottom of the Brick and really use the closed environment to steam. Again, it is a relatively simple addition, but it gives the same Cooking Brick a completely new function.
That is exactly the direction we find very interesting. Instead of constantly replacing products with new versions, we want to create additions that make the products people already have more versatile. Ideally, you buy a Cooking Brick and can add different elements to it over time that give you more and more possibilities.
Of course, new colors can also come in the future. Clay and glazes offer a beautiful playground for colors, surfaces, and finishes, and we are constantly experimenting with them. At the same time, we want to stay connected to the natural character of the material. It must always feel like clay and not like we are trying to hide what the product is made of.
And of course, there are ideas for completely new shapes and products. When you start thinking about the idea of the LEGO of the cooking world, the rectangular Cooking Brick is actually just the starting point. There could be other shapes, other proportions, and other ways in which different parts work together.
We are also constantly inspired by the people who use the Bricks. Sometimes someone sends us a photo or video of something they cooked, and we suddenly think: 'Wait a minute, we had never thought of using it that way.' Sometimes it is precisely such unexpected applications that can inspire completely new product ideas.
That is what makes the whole development process so much fun. We create the products, but at the same time, the community teaches us what else could be possible.
So yes, there are absolutely many things we are thinking about. Probably too many :) But we have also learned that good products take time. Especially when you work with ceramics, you cannot have an idea today and produce thousands of perfect copies tomorrow. You have to design, make prototypes, test, fire, break things, adjust, and test again. Sometimes something that seems incredibly simple in a sketch turns out to be extremely complicated as soon as you actually try to produce it in clay.
For now, our focus is therefore strongly on making the Mini, Original, and Large available to more people and on building the Bricknic world around these three products.
But behind the scenes, something is always happening. New shapes, new features, new materials, new colors, and maybe even completely new products.
But we don't want to talk too much about that yet, because of course we want to keep a few surprises up our sleeve. ;)
A word from Timm
There is one thing that was not specifically asked in the interview, but that I think is very important to mention: the values behind Bricknic and the people who make all this possible.
For us, Bricknic has never been just about creating and selling a cooking product. From the beginning, there was a much bigger idea behind it. The values we try to build everything on are togetherness, trust, transparency, quality, and of course, good food.
Togetherness is probably the most important. It is actually already in the name Bricknic. The idea has always been to bring people together around food. Cooking together, sitting around a table or fire, sharing a meal, having conversations, and spending time together. Food has the incredible ability to connect people, regardless of where they come from, what language they speak, or what their background is. We want Bricknic to contribute to creating these moments.
Trust and transparency are just as important to us. We want to build long-lasting relationships with the people around Bricknic, from our customers and dealers to our distributors, manufacturers, artisans, chefs, and creative partners. Building a company and developing physical products never goes in a perfectly straight line. Things go wrong, challenges arise, ideas change, and you learn along the way. We believe that being open about this and treating each other with trust and respect creates much stronger relationships in the long term.
Quality is another value that is enormously important to us. The Cooking Brick looks very simple, but behind its production is a huge amount of development, craftsmanship, and technical knowledge. We want to make products that people enjoy using for a long time, instead of products that are quickly replaced. Working with a natural material like clay also means accepting that every piece has its own character. For us, that is not a weakness, but rather part of the beauty of producing something from a natural material.
And then, of course, there is good food. :) Ultimately, everything we do comes back to that. You can have the most beautiful product and the best story in the world, but if the food that comes out of it is not good, we have not achieved what we wanted to achieve. Good food does not necessarily have to be complicated. Very often, it is quite the opposite. A few simple ingredients, good preparation, and people to share it with can be enough.
But probably the most important thing I want to mention is that Bricknic is a team effort.
Although the original idea may have started with one person who saw stacks of bricks somewhere in Kenya, everything that happened after that was created by many people together. Designers, ceramics specialists, manufacturers, artisans, suppliers, photographers, chefs, distributors, dealers, friends, family, and of course all the people who cook with the Bricks have contributed to what Bricknic is today.
Over the years, there have been a huge number of conversations, prototypes, mistakes, improvements, and ideas from different people. Everyone brings their own knowledge and perspective, and the product becomes better because of it.
I think this is sometimes forgotten when people talk about inventing. We love the story of one inventor with one great idea, but in reality, bringing an idea into the world is almost always a collective effort. You need people who believe in it, people who challenge it, people who know things you do not know, and people who are willing to work together to make it better.
That is why the value of togetherness also goes beyond just cooking together. It describes how we want to build Bricknic as a company.
Of course, we want to grow, and we have big ambitions for where Bricknic can go. But as we grow, I hope we can keep these values very close to us: togetherness, trust, transparency, quality, and good food.
Because ultimately, Bricknic is not really about the Brick itself. The Brick is simply the tool. What matters is what happens around it: the food that is prepared, the ideas that are shared, the people who come together, and the memories that are created.
That is what Bricknic is really about for me!