Hestan Cue Smart Cooking System Countertop Induction Burner Cooktop + 11" Smart Fry Pan - 2-Piece Smart (App based - Control Mode) Home Portable Electric Stove and Induction Fry Pan (Gen 1)

I have delayed writing for over a year hoping things would get better. Before I get started there are two things I want to be made clear. 1) When the system works it is incredible. This system introduced us to sous vide also. Between the two we are now having food cooked to the correct temperature and it is amazing. We can cook better here than in restaurants. 2) We only use the Hestan system occasionally because of our life style. The problems I will describe may not happen or may be easily dealt with by someone cooking frequently with the system and becomes familiar with its idiosyncratic problems.. In using frequently it might be possible to avoid many of the problems we have had or easily correct them when they occur. I hope that is the case. However, using only occasionally, we use it less and less as it is frequently a struggle. I will go through tonights series of problems as a "for instance." They are not the only technical problems we have run into. If a clear set of instructions exists on how to set this system up originally, what to do before you start a cooking session, and how to systematically troubleshoot the frequent problems (for us) that come up I am unaware of it.1) We open the app on the iPad. The app opens to the Hestan Cue commercial. We have all the products! We can't find a way to get to the recipes. I close and open, tap around, close and open, and finally they appear, but I am not sure what I did to get there and expect the same problem the next time I go to use it. This is what prompts me to write. Why do we have to struggle with the advertisements in the Hestan App? Took at least 10 minutes for this. We own the equipment. Why make us struggle through unnecessary advertisements?2) Once in the app we choose the recipe and start. I advance into the recipe as I have found and reported to the company the terrible disappointment to go through all the prep, get to the cooking phase, and something is wrong and you can't cook. I will not recommend this system until this flaw is corrected. I want to know there are no connection problems and the system is ready to go before I go through all the prep and then find I can't cook. Even advancing into the recipe sometimes it is unclear to me whether the system is connected and ready or not. FRUSTRATION I used the system enough to believe there was a problem tonight with the burner and it said somewhere something about connecting the burner. How do I connect the burner. The second big flaw for me is this-you run into a problem and there are no instructions on how to fix it. I searched and searched. Tapped and tapped icons. Finally found something that looked like it might relate to burner. I ran through this several times without resolving. At one point I noted that there are two burners listed in our app. I tried to delete one and that didn't work. I tapped and tapped going around the pages and finally it activated. I do not know what I did to correct the problem-what ever it was. This is so frustrating for me. It is so difficult to fix problems that show up all too frequently, and then I wind up not educated as to what the problem was and how I fixed it. This is the second reason to not recommend-there are no instructions on step by step approaches when you have a problem and no real time help when you do.I hope the company can resolve these technical difficulties we have had with the system. When it works it creates delicious food. We use Apple digital equipment and are used to plug in and go with rare difficulties. This having to fiddle and fiddle to get it working is just something we are not used to. I have had multiple communications with the company reporting the problems we have had. I keep hoping and hoping the problems get fixed. We very much want to use this system. As I said, the final straw for me tonight was not being able to make the advertisements go away IN THE HESTAN CUE APP so we could start the cooking process.I see in the evaluations some have criticized the number of recipes. We have not found that to be a problem. Seems there are plenty to me. I also note the criticism about it being expensive for a skillet. It is far more than that. It is a cooking system for the digital age.We will continue to use this equipment occasionally. I hope and hope the company corrects the technical problems. If so I will be delighted to upgrade this evaluation. Huge potential.May 27, 2020-Update using Gen 2I originally gave this a 1 star because of connection issues-see above. There is a newer model we upgraded to. The connection issues appear to be solved or at least much much better than they were. I continue to applaud the system as when it works it delivers delicious food-far better than anything we can do at home and most restaurants. There continue to be some problems in using it, especially for occasional users. It's much better with this version, but still could be easier to use. We may not ever be noticing these, but are using the units only occasionally because of a change in diet. You also may not have any problems if you are more comfortable with software than my wife. I continue to say this type of cooking has enormous potential. There are still some small steps to get there with this unit.I would be sure to get the second version of this product which I assume is the Gen 2. Do not purchase the first version.

This is a great system. The parts are very good.The frying pan is large, but not too large. It is stainless steel on the inside, an aluminum core. magnetic stainless on the outside (so that it works with induction burners). The handle is long and attached with rivets so it won't come off over time. It stays very cool when the pan is hot, but I recommend always using a potholder or chef's towel to prevent burns. The inside is brushed stainless, without any non-stick coatings to wear, scrape, or burn off. There is a Bluetooth module in the rear of the handle secured by a screw that uses a single AA battery. It appears to have a thermistor attached to the pan, with the connecting wires running up the handle to the module. This allows it to measure and report the pan temperature.The induction burner is full-sized and will need some countertop space. The top brushed silver rim is plastic. At this price-point, I expected aluminum. it is 1600 Watts, which is fairly high-powered. It heats quickly and accurately. Induction cooking is an awesome technology. The controls are capacitive, like a smartphone screen, which makes them a bit too easy to accidentally turn on. The temperature bar is not labeled, so while they say you can use it without the app, you will be guessing at the temperature. Kind of like most stoves, really. What temperature is "medium?"The price is high. Very high. What makes it worth the cost isn't the individual parts, it is how they work as a system. The piece that ties the system together is the app. It contains many fairly advanced recipes with step-by-step directions that include short videos of how to do the steps. Most of it is in the prep. After you get everything ready, the app connects to the burner and pan to control the heat and leads you through all the steps required to finish the dish.This is not for people who don't cook. It is for people who already cook fairly well, and want to get better. Consider it a very good way to get intermediate to advanced cooking lessons at home from someone who is arguably the best chef in the world today. The Chef in the videos is Philip Tessier, the first American to win the Olympics of food, the Bocuse d’Or..Some small snags other than the obvious high price. As I said earlier, the rim around the burner should be aluminum, not plastic. The fan in the burner is annoyingly loud. The manual controls are an afterthought, and they clearly expect you to use the app.The app itself is fantastic but allows no user customization. I used it to make a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches. It worked well, but the bread got a couple of shades darker than I would have liked (or what was pictured in the app). (Refer to the included picture.) It would have been nice to adjust the time to be a little shorter. Also, when I make grilled cheese sandwiches I use a lid to make sure the entire sandwich along with the cheese inside is well-heated. The app didn't do this, and while it worked out well without it, I wonder why a lid wasn't included. My guess is that if they had included a lid, it would have been in the instructions. Not including a lid was a miss, especially at this price.Overall, this is a great idea and is executed nearly flawlessly. If you are a good cook looking to improve your skills, this is your ticket.I bought this with my own hard-earned shekels, and nothing was provided free for this review.Sean Logue, 2017

Excellent produit en tous rapports...