All the food we prepared looked and tasted fresh and flavorful (recipes tended to call for generous quantities of fat and salt), and we liked that the step-by-step videos often included widely applicable techniques such as prepping garlic or herbs. However, using the Hestan Cue didn’t always feel like we were learning to cook: One tester turned out perfect corn pancakes but said she didn’t feel that she had personally cooked them, a common remark from testers. As another put it, “I feel like I was the pan’s assistant.” The process also sometimes felt chaotic, as we found ourselves anxiously jumping between the app, the pan, and what we were supposed to be doing with the food at every step. The recipes are clever, with short ingredient lists, but the system doesn’t always have you prep all the ingredients first; instead it often abruptly weaves in chopping and slicing, which sometimes left us scrambling.

As cooking nerds, we loved that the system came with a small metal ruler for measuring food thickness; the app uses this data to gauge how long and at what temperature to cook certain foods properly. But the system isn’t foolproof: The app told us to measure only the thickest portion of a chicken breast and input that number. That thick part cooked perfectly, but the rest of the breast was much thinner and emerged overcooked and tough, albeit under a beautifully golden crust. It would have worked better if we’d been instructed first to pound the meat into a uniform thickness, a common chef’s trick. Trial and error helped: When we seared the second pair of chicken breasts, we deducted about 10 percent from the thickness measurement, the app shortened the cooking time accordingly, and the chicken came out much more moist. Even with this smart system, a thinking cook is still a must.

Another flaw that affected meal preparation time was the size of the skillet. It measures 11 inches from rim to rim but narrows to a 7½-inch cooking surface that doesn’t accommodate much food (two chicken breasts, one large pancake, or a few slices of eggplant), often requiring multiple batches when preparing more than two servings. Similarly, when frying wings in the saucier pan, we could manage only eight wings at a time. However, this recipe also revealed a benefit: With the app controlling the oil temperature and the high sides of the pan containing splatter, we’ve never been quite so relaxed while frying—and the wings came out crispy and juicy, too.

One notable downside to the Hestan Cue system is its fragility when compared with traditional cookware and heat sources. Its pans come with a 3-inch-long metal pod containing electronics that you push into a hollow in the handle and secure with a tiny screw; these electronics cannot get wet, so you have to be sure never to splash or immerse the handle while you wash the pans, which are not dishwasher-safe. (Removing the pod isn’t easy, so you wouldn’t want to do it every time.) The pans also can’t be used on any other heat source (such as your stovetop) and can’t go into the oven (as you might do when finishing a thicker steak after pan-searing it or to keep food warm until serving). As we followed the Hestan Cue’s recipe for cacio e pepe, the first step was to cook the pasta “in a large pot.” We were confused about which pot to use, and although the app didn’t automatically turn on the burner, it also didn’t explicitly say not to use the Hestan Cue. So we filled the Chef’s Pot saucier pan we had in front of us and used the burner manually. Unfortunately, the water (to which we had added flour, as the recipe required) boiled over. The thick, starchy liquid flowed into the burner through the numerous vents on its sides, and it shut down—permanently. After we worked to resuscitate it, texting back and forth with customer support staff at Hestan, they instructed us to return it for a free replacement. The lesson: The Hestan Cue System doesn’t eliminate the need for other tools in your kitchen.

Another limitation of the system is that its recipe database is primarily designed for browsing, making it a struggle if you want to use ingredients you happen to have on hand. We tried searching for common ingredients, including “pasta,” “blueberries,” “ground beef,” and “hot sauce,” but none had any recipe results. We eventually found three pasta dishes listed under “starches.” We found more than a dozen recipes for steak, but only for specific, expensive cuts including filet mignon, rib eye, and T-bone; we had only cheap steaks on hand, and there was no indication of how to adapt these recipes to cook them. However, one of the benefits of a smart product is that it can evolve, and more recipes have been added since we began testing.

Overall, the Hestan Cue fulfilled its promise of guided cooking within its limited selection of recipes. It made meal preparation into a game, which was fairly enjoyable, as were the Instagram-worthy results, since the app is good at teaching how to plate and garnish for maximum visual appeal, though it was unclear whether the system really could teach someone how to cook. As for the pans themselves, we wish they were a bit bigger to accommodate family-size portions, didn’t have fragile electronics in their handles, and worked in ovens or on stovetops. That said, the pans are fully clad and otherwise sturdily built: Whacking them with a metal spoon and cutting in them with a knife barely left marks. Cleaning them was not overly difficult once we mastered keeping the pans’ handles out of the water, especially since food resisted sticking to the smooth stainless-steel cooking surfaces. We expect that the system will continue to evolve and improve over time, and in the meantime, we can recommend it with reservations.