This Smart Cookware Wants to Make You Feel Like a Michelin-Starred Chef

Next Monday, Hestan, the California-based manufacturer that bills itself as an “innovative luxury culinary brand,” is launching Hestan Cue. It’s a video-guided, Bluetooth-powered, tripartite smart cooking device consisting of an 11-inch smart pan, a 1600-watt induction burner, and a recipe app armed with a hundred recipes from Michelin star-anointed chefs. Hestan Cue trades on careful precision, holding your hand through every step of the process from prep to plating. It'd like to ensure that your final product is faultless.

Cooking with Hestan Cue been likened to cooking with a GPS. And it’s a devilishly exacting device, its app outfitted with videos—like how to dice vegetables—to ensure you don’t screw up a crucial step. It adjusts temperature and cooking time as you go along, reducing the inherent risk of failure.

The product is the brainchild of Hestan Managing Director Christoph Milz, the man behind PolyScience’s sous vide technologies, and chef Philip Tessier, who's an alum of Eric Ripert’s Le Bernadin and Thomas Keller’s Per Se. It's part of Hestan's greater mission to realize the proverbial “kitchen of the future.” Hestan’s most well-known previous invention was the NanoBond, its collection of stainless steel cookware coated with molecular titanium. The cheapest option goes for $150.

Is This Appliance About to Change the Way We Cook?

Read Article

Hestan Cue’s asking price, meanwhile, is $650, though it’s currently available for preorder at Williams-Sonoma for $550. I'm afraid that's a bit out of my price range. It’s unclear what kind of home cook, exactly, this product is meant for (neither Milz nor Tessier responded to requests for comment), but Hestan Cue’s aim is to make you feel like a Michelin-star chef yourself. That's quite the promise! Let's see if it lives up to that.

Does Hestan Cue sound like something you need in your kitchen? Let us know in the comments.