Edit (oops I thought you could control temperature. My bad. An electric skillet would do that, but not look as cool.) I would highly recommend that you experim

Edit (oops I thought you could control temperature. My bad. An electric skillet would do that, but not look as cool.) I would highly recommend that you experiment with modulating the temperature. You can get a measure of the thickness and total thermal mass based on spectral response. A simple heat diffusion model should also let you estimate internal temperature, if you assume the slice is thin relative to diameter. Note that the convection and radiant heat flows from the pan won't change as the food cooks (only from the top of the food)... At the beginning (assuming a heated pan) heat flow into the food will dominate and near the end I expect evaporation will change. You should also be able to do a better job with onions and things you want to cook slowly,because you will see a rapid drop in thermal flow as moisture levels drop... Note, also that boiling evaporation doesn't depend strongly on temperature. Cooking a proper roux could likely also be made more simple,if you knew when to pay close attention. It's a bit like a rice cooker. Those can actually be VERY smart.