For a brief period this summer, I was a chef. My crowning achievement? Scallops, which were perfectly seared and evoked the coast—any coast with cool breezes that make 100-degree weather bearable.
Since I am a novice cook at best, I must confess that I had help in the form of the Hestan Cue. A smart cooking system that includes an induction burner, a fry pan, a cook’s pot, and an app, the Cue marries technology with technique. Inside the handle of the pan and pot is a capsule that communicates with the burner and the app, controlling time and temperature.
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Each recipe comes with step-by-step instructions and a video showing chef Philip Tessier—Hestan Cue’s culinary director—prepping, cooking, and presenting dishes. Tessier, who coached the U.S. team to a gold medal at the Bocuse d’Or in 2017 and wrote about the experience in the recently released book Chasing Bocuse, spoke with me by phone.
One of the first questions I asked concerned demographics. With a hefty price tag—$500 for the burner and pan; $800 for the burner, pan, and pot—I wondered who was buying the Cue. A wide range of people, he replied, including culinary enthusiasts, first adopters, and tech-savvy foodies—those who are “looking to skill up.” Since many people can’t afford that price tag, the team at Hestan is working on “giving everyone access to it at a lower price point.”
The high price point gets you the system and an online community with customer support and a blog. The first time I tried the Cue, the burner turned off and then came back on, a glitch I attributed to my Wi-Fi. Within a couple of hours, I received an email from customer service informing me that they knew of the issue and suggested I replace the battery in the capsule. Big Chef was watching…but in a good way. Problem solved.
The bigger problem that Tessier and others at Hestan Cue want to solve is a culinary paradox: While our culture appears to be obsessed with all things food, from celebrity chefs to cooking shows to trendy restaurants, fewer people are cooking that food themselves. Tessier imagines the Cue (which does have a manual mode) helping people learn how to cook, to the point that they might take what they’ve learned and repeat the results at Mom’s house with a cast-iron skillet.
Given the price of the system, one challenge that the company has faced is getting people to try the cookware. Marketing efforts have included a series of hands-on classes at the Culinary Institute of America’s Copia campus, as well as a hotel in Napa that provides guests with access to the Cue and a box of ingredients. It’s possible, Tessier said, that the company will eventually enter the meal-kit market as demand increases.
This fall, Hestan Cue will roll out a smart cooktop that can replace residential stoves. Further development will center around “the gas solution”—creating similar technology for gas cooktops—Tessier said.
“Within the next five years, this won’t be a niche market anymore,” he predicted.
The Hestan Cue is available at Williams-Sonoma, Amazon, or by ordering direct.
