Houlei Hou, Founder of Dasheng Barbecue: Whether aiming to be towering and upright or overwhelming, standardization is unavoidable.

Ask AI · How can an AI intelligent barbecue machine improve the standardized efficiency of a barbecue brand?

On March 24, the 2026 China Catering Industry Conference and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo, jointly hosted by the World Chinese Cuisine Federation and Red Restaurant Network, kicked off at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center. Among them, at the “2026 China Barbecue Development Forum,” Dasheng Barbecue founder Hou Lei shared his views on the theme of “barbecue brand innovation and breaking through homogenization.”

△ Dasheng Barbecue founder Hou Lei

Hou Lei believes that barbecue is a very big—yet very good—track. In the future, within the catering segment, the growth rate of barbecue will be faster and the growth space will be larger.

So how can a barbecue brand build a moat? Hou Lei shared three takeaways.

First, quality comes first. A brand has quality first, and a name second. The product is the foundation; it’s necessary to give up some profit margin in order to improve quality. Reduce profit a bit, and make quality more stable.

Second, the model for long-term brand development is “people-oriented.” Hou Lei said that he started exploring a partnership model more than a decade ago. On the surface, management costs may increase significantly, but as identity positioning changes, participants’ attitudes and mindsets will differ, and the actual management cost may end up decreasing instead. “The entrepreneurship model is co-creation, co-ownership, sharing, and supply. Only when everyone jointly protects this brand can it stay steady,” Hou Lei emphasized.

Third, equipment leadership. Except for hot pot, barbecue is a category in catering that is relatively easy to standardize. In the catering industry, there’s a saying: “Either stand tall and straight, or spread far and wide.” To stand tall as a truly individualized brand is very important, but to spread far and wide, standardization is even more important.

Catering food industry top 500 companies like McDonald’s—if you say whether their products are very tasty or not, you can’t be sure, but their equipment and standards have always been leading.

It’s the same with barbecue. To achieve “spread far and wide,” you can add equipment—such as an AI intelligent barbecue machine—that enables automatic temperature control, automatic flipping, and automatic seasoning spraying. If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools.

Hou Lei also revealed that Dasheng Barbecue has invested a great deal in this area, and the related equipment has already been successfully developed. One staff member and one machine can barbecue—automatic flipping, automatic entering, automatic coming out.

In addition, when discussing the relationship between semi-finished products and the in-store fresh flavor, Hou Lei pointed out that in the factory processing stage, temperature control must be paid attention to, which has a great deal to do with the freshness and texture of the food. Ultra-low-temperature rapid freezing can lock in moisture and lock in freshness, but the actual cost is far higher than making it on-site. Moreover, even products whose freshness is locked via ultra-low-temperature processing still need to be grilled in the store; they cannot be made into semi-finished products in the factory.

Finally, Hou Lei also emphasized that although all major chain catering brands have spent many years, they all can’t get around product strength and standardized unity. To ensure food safety while also ensuring standards—only then can they move more steadily and go farther.

Author: Red Restaurant Editorial Department