A while back, for one of our first post-vaccination gatherings at home, I wanted to make a crowd-pleasing batch of fried chicken. I like cooking the bird sous vide before dredging and dunking, then frying the pieces quickly to crisp up the batter.

I used the occasion to run a head-to-head test. On my stove's main burner, I had a Dutch oven with a thermometer probe perched on the side, its cable zigzagging back to the base. Nearby, I had a pot of oil on a Hestan Cue induction burner, with its slick new wireless temperature probe. While I'd have to monitor and adjust the stove heat under the Dutch oven with my greasy chicken fingers, the Hestan would, in theory, keep the temperature right where I wanted it, just like a professional Frialator.

The Hestan Cue debuted in 2017 as a two-piece ensemble: a countertop induction burner that connects to a mobile app, and a Bluetooth-enabled pan with embedded temperature sensors. In the ensuing years, Hestan expanded its range, releasing a deep “chef’s pot,” a smaller sauce pot, and a nonstick pan that all work with the induction burner and app. (You may wish to build your pan collection slowly—a starter kit with a burner and one pan starts at $300, and individual pans range in price from $200 to $250.) Hestan has also released its own connected stovetop and partnered with a small number of manufacturers like GE that sell stovetops which connect with Hestan’s app and pans.

More recently, Hestan released a Bluetooth temperature probe that allows for poaching, frying, and sous-vide cooking. The Cue is one of the better smart kitchen products out there, and the new probe and the passage of five years offered reasons to take stock of how far the company has come since the original pan and burner came out.

Just like always, you use the Cue’s app to guide you through a recipe, where portion sizes are often scalable, steps feature helpful how-to videos, its burner adjusts to the perfect temperature for what you’re cooking, and timers for steps are set automatically when you need them. With guided cooking of this quality, you make dinner while learning good technique. Advanced home cooks will be excited to use the app to ditch stovetop settings like Low and Medium-High in favor of the ability to cook to the degree in Control Mode.

In my kitchen, with those two pots of hot oil ready to roll and a sheet pan full of chicken, things did not go as planned. Like a movie chase scene where the hero yells “Punch it!” just before the engine dies, the Hestan lost heat and connectivity right before it was time to drop in the chicken. I ended up frying everything in the Dutch oven.

This wasn't good, yet I knew from previous testings of the Hestan that it wasn't normal. I spoke with company reps and learned that I'd exceeded both the amount of oil it can heat and the maximum target temperature on my first try. Soon after, Hestan made adjustments to its app to keep others from having the same problem.

Over the past few years, I had explored the Cue's capabilities: using the temperature-controlled pan to cook a steak just the way I wanted it, being prompted to flip it at just the right time, or making clarified butter by setting the pan to 240 degrees Fahrenheit and letting the magic happen, unsupervised, while doing other work in the kitchen. In the chef’s pot, I made Hestan’s fantastic version of clams and chorizo. I found that using the Cue system quickly takes you in new directions and gets you cooking food previously beyond your confidence level.

That was also the case when I tried some of the probe recipes. I made Hestan’s potato salad recipe—standard and simple—which turned out well. It was also a peek behind the curtain; if you start with a known quantity of preheated water and add a specific amount of red potatoes cut to a certain size, the machine can make adjustments to keep the water at a steady temperature and the results predictable. (This is how good recipes work; the Cue just adds automation.)

That recipe had some leeway built in, and I took advantage of it to riff and use some Kewpie mayo and garlic chives. It also gave me an opportunity to do something basic, like try Hestan’s hard-boiled egg recipe so I could use the eggs as a garnish on the spuds. It sounds simple, but offering recipes for kitchen basics like fried eggs, plain-old pork chops, or a couple of sausage links cements the long-term utility of a product like the Cue.

From there, I had a little fritter fiesta, using the app to make red-onion pakora, classic Indian street food with turmeric, curry, and ajwain seeds, ready for dipping in a green chutney with garlic and ginger. I followed it up with Swiss chard fritters. For both recipes, the probe, base, and app communicate to keep the temperature of the oil where it should be, and you're instructed to keep the batches small so the temperature doesn't drop further than the burner can handle.

It recalled when I first reviewed the Cue, making salted almond brittle, something I'd never attempt without a worry of scorching the sugar. I marveled at the way that, by plugging in how thick a steak was, it could guide me to a perfect medium-rare doneness with a crisp, brown sear on both sides. Later, when I took Hestan’s stovetop on a two-day spin, the temperature control and detailed videos helped me make a perfect, torpedo-shaped omelet, followed by pan-seared salmon where I got the skin crispy without overcooking the center.

If someone was considering the Cue and asked me whether they should buy it, the short answer would be yes. The long answer would be a three-parter, all relating to the passage of time.

First, the burner needs updating. It's old, and time to phase this one out in favor of one with more power, a wider heating coil, and a more reliable connection between the app, pans, and burner; even though the folks at Hestan swapped out the equipment I was testing after my fried chicken problems, I still had the occasional and confounding connectivity problem. It also needs—and this is a big one—physical controls where you can cook to the degree without having to use the app on your phone. In my book, the key features of a smart appliance always have to be accessible on the machine itself, and the Cue's burner has only a little slide that forces you back into the vagaries of Medium-Low Land. Since this is my wish list, a little nubbin that would allow the burner itself to track the temperature—instead of having to rely on that information from the pan—would seal the deal. Frankly, it would be a lot like a connected version of the top-notch Control Freak from Breville/PolyScience, and that would be just fine.

Second, the quality of the Cue's recent recipes has taken a hit. This likely stems from the loss of the company’s seasoned longtime chef, Philip Tessier, who stepped down in 2019 while the company laid off 40 percent of its staff in an effort to be what their CEO Stanley Cheng referred to as “more focused on selling rather than product development because our products are developed.” That probably made financial sense at the time, and while Hestan’s newer recipes are still tasty, they’re underdeveloped, and lack the zip, precision, and culinary wisdom that gave the app such a strong start. The written steps sometimes rely too much on watching the corresponding video and could use some extra proofreading and recipe testing. Take, for example, the mysterious “gooey batter” texture you’re instructed to shoot for while making Swiss chard fritters. Similarly, the falafel recipe suggests whirring the chickpea mixture in the food processor to a “fine coarse texture,” before portioning them into “small ball size pieces.” Reader, without getting too personal, how large are your small balls?

In most of those cases, home cooks will be able to muddle their way through, but it sure slows things down.

Third, thinking ahead, the end goal should be for people to use this technology in more powerful built-in stovetops, not standalone burners that you'll often need to put on or next to your stove so you can borrow its vent hood. Those built-ins tend to be more powerful but expensive, and I'd love to see more partnerships with manufacturers who could offer connected stovetops at more affordable prices.

We might see some progress on my three-part wish list in the late fall when an “enhanced” app is slated to replace the existing app. This might help with some issues—including, I hope, the connectivity bugs I encountered—but other notables, including the recipes and the burner itself, will remain the same.

I closed out testing by making Hestan's take on karaage, the Japanese fried chicken dish where pieces of marinated thigh meat are dredged and dropped in hot oil. The pieces are 2 inches wide and the amount of oil is limited to 1.5 quarts, so the burner can come up to a hot-enough temperature and maintain it without struggling. You're also advised to limit the number of pieces in the pot, which keeps the oil temperature from falling too far. These guardrails—a limited amount of oil, a conservative frying temperature, and tiny pieces of food—are all ways of working around the power limitations of the base, but it's hard to nitpick when you take a bite of crispy fried chicken.

Despite signs of aging and the connectivity issues I faced, the Cue has aged relatively well, helped significantly by good design and a deep bench of good-to-excellent recipes. It's still one of the smartest tools in the smart kitchen, and if the company can keep developing, I don't see any reason why that will change.

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