Several embodiments include a cooking instrument having: a housing frame defining a slot to fit a food item; a heater mechanically coupled to the housing frame and adapted to produce electromagnetic waves to heat the food item; one or more optical feedback components configured to measure light intensity at one or more regions in the slot perpendicular to an opening of the slot; and a controller configured to control the heater based on an output of the optical feedback components.

In a method for treating food to be cooked in a household cooking appliance, a sensor measures a local distribution of a surface condition of the food to be cooked. A measure of deviation is calculated from the measured local distribution and multiple local power distributions that are known in advance in the region of the food to be cooked in correspondence with different sets of setting values of a unit for treating the food to be cooked. A unit for treating the food to be cooked is operated by using the set of setting values of the one of the power distributions for which the measure of deviation fulfills a predetermined criterion.

The present disclosure relates to a multifunctional appliance for cooking comprising: a cover; a first pot on which the cover is fitted, the first pot being provided with one or more first girds at a predetermined position thereof; a second pot detachably fixed inside the first pot, the second pot being provided with one or more second grids at a predetermined position thereof, the position of the one or more second grids corresponding with the position of the one or more first grids; a first heating member fixed on a sidewall of the first pot, facing right toward the one or more first girds; and a convection member fixed on the sidewall of the first pot, facing right toward the first heating member, such that the airflow generated by the convection member flows into the second pot through the first girds and second grids after being heated.

In a method for treating food in a food handling device with a parameter configuration a measured value distribution of a surface property of the food is determined after expiration of the period of time by means of a sensor. A pattern of change is calculated from a comparison of the p-th measured value distribution with a measured value distribution determined previously. An assessment value Bq which represents a difference between a deviation of a target distribution from the measured value distribution and a deviation of the target distribution from a prediction pattern is calculated for all patterns of change stored hitherto. The prediction pattern is formed by superimposing the measured value distribution with the respective pattern of change, and the parameter configuration is set for which the assessment value Bq meets at least one predetermined criterion.

A thawing method for a thawing device includes: generating a radio frequency signal; acquiring the radio frequency signal; an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode plate of the thawing chamber generating, according to the radio frequency signal, radio frequency waves having a corresponding frequency in a thawing chamber and thawing an object to be processed, obtaining voltages and currents of the incident wave signal and reflected wave signal, and determining a thawing progress of the object to be processed.

A cooking device is for cooking food on a support (e.g. in a basket) within a cooking chamber. A required cooking time is determined based only on the time-evolution of the cooking chamber temperature and a power of the heating device. A first, less accurate, estimate of the required cooking time is determined within a first period, e.g. 90 seconds, of the turning on of the heating device and a second, more accurate, estimate of the required cooking is determined later, but e.g. within five minutes of the turning on of the heating device.

The present invention makes it possible to easily cook a desired dish by properly controlling heating temperatures of objects to be heated in cookware in accordance with a cooking procedure. The cooking device 10 is provided with: a heating unit 11 for heating cookware C containing objects to be heated such as water, oil, and ingredients; a temperature detection unit 12 for detecting a temperature of the objects to be heated and/or a temperature of a bottom exterior surface of the cookware C; and a control unit 18 for controlling the heating unit 11 on the basis of the temperature detected by the temperature detection unit 12 such that the temperature of the objects to be heated in the cookware C or a surface temperature of a bottom interior surface of the cookware C matches a cooking temperature set in a cooking process included in cooking execution information.

An oven system to heat a moving item includes a conveyor capable of moving at more than one speed along a path of movement; a heat source positioned along the path of movement; a baseline heating profile for heating the moving item at a constant velocity; a sensor to detect energy available for the heat source at a particular moment or over a period of time; and a system to dynamically modify, based on the energy available, the baseline heating profile into a modified heating profile including a variable conveyance speed, where, when the moving item exits the oven system, the energy supplied by the heat source to the moving item equals the energy to be supplied per the baseline heating profile.

An oven comprises an interior electronics cavity defined within electronics cavity walls. The oven includes an air inlet for receiving ambient air from an ambient space outside the electronics cavity into the interior electronics cavity and a first air outlet for returning steam laden air from a cooking space to the ambient space outside the cooking space. The oven also includes a second air outlet positioned to separate flow going into the air inlet from flow from the first air outlet. An air plenum can be defined outside of the cooking space, and the air inlet can be defined in a first portion of an exterior interface of the air plenum. The second air outlet can defined in a second portion of the exterior interface.

A cooking appliance assembly includes a cooking appliance having a heat source for heating at least one food item, a temperature sensing device, an imaging device for collecting data relating to the temperature sensing device, and a controller communicatively coupled with the cooking appliance assembly, the temperature sensing device, and the imaging device. The controller includes at least one processor for performing one or more operations, including but not limited to determining a type of the temperature sensing device based, at least in part, on the collected data relating to the temperature sensing device from the imaging device.