The beef industry’s latest marketing effort was announced on April Fools’ Day, but as far as we can tell, it appears to be the real deal.

On Monday, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association released a new virtual assistant, Chuck Knows Beef, to offer beef-cooking tips to users exactly when they need them. According to a press release, Chuck brings “the knowledge of a rancher, the expertise of a chef, and the humor of a dad into the kitchen.”

The new offering, which works with Amazon Echo and Google Assistant, provides recipe ideas, information on different kinds of beef, safe-cooking tips, and details on standard practices in the industry.

“We were inspired to develop a tool that empowers shoppers to feel more confident when approaching the meat case and purchasing and cooking beef for their families,” said Season Solorio, NCBA’s executive director of brand marketing and communications, in the news release. “Chuck is an ideal solution for bridging the gap between consumers’ love of beef and increasing use of technology in the kitchen.”

NCBA is a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program, which is funding the initiative.

The association is one of many that are dipping their toes into the virtual assistant space. As Associations Now’s Tim Ebner noted in 2017, organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons have tested the waters with platforms including Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

For those who don’t have an Echo handy, a text-based version of Chuck is available on the Chuck Knows Beef website. Ask him about flank steak—he’ll tell you how to grill it to perfection.

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