A cooking assembly, and a cooking station employing the cooking assembly, is disclosed. The cooking assembly comprises a flexible ring which is conformable to any one of a plurality of different predeterminedly structured templates, any one of which can be interchangeably utilized upon a food station, in order to provide cooked foods with predeterminedly different shapes or configurations as may be desired.

A tabletop cooking assembly for preparing foods thereon comprises a cooking element having a cooking area and a vent disposed peripherally to one side of the cooking element defining an aperture for receiving smoke from the cooking element. The assembly includes a first exhaust duct, a filter assembly, an electrostatic precipitator, and a high velocity blower. The first exhaust duct is substantially unobstructed and in fluid communication with the vent for directing smoke away from the cooking element. The high velocity blower is in fluid communication with the first exhaust duct and the filter assembly for drawing smoke from the cooking element through the vent. The heating system includes a retaining plate, a plurality of heating strips, and an insulating material. The heating strips are disposed between the retaining plate and the heating surface to heat the cooking area for preparing foods thereon.

A vertical grill comprises a back chimney within the housing having an inlet and an outlet. The inlet is in the form of one or more first openings in the back frame member, and the outlet being a second opening which is higher than the inlet. A first air intake located in at least one of the grill's panels. A removable tray module comprises a slide positioned at an incline between the front and back sides, configured to direct fats and break away solids to the front side of the tray. At least one channel is covered by the slide and configured for air flow. An external receptacle is positioned at the front side of the tray, wherein the slide leads into the receptacle so that fats and break away solids may be channeled into the external receptacle after traveling downwards along the incline of the slide.

A cooking apparatus includes, but is not limited to, a bottom surface that lies at the bottom of a perimeter wall and having one or more stands operable to support a cooking plate, the perimeter wall having an angled edge; an electric heating element that can be interchangeably positioned on the one or more stands; a gas heating element that can be interchangeably positioned on the one or more stands; a cooking plate that is operable to seat on the base above the electric or gas heating element, is detachable from the base, and has an angled edge portion complimentary to that of the perimeter wall; a lid that is operable to rest over the cooking plate and extends beyond the perimeter edge of the cooking plate but completely covers the plate and allows for condensation to drip outside of the plate.

A tabletop cooking assembly for preparing foods thereon comprises a cooking element having a cooking area and a vent disposed peripherally to one side of the cooking element defining an aperture for receiving smoke from the cooking element. The assembly includes a first exhaust duct, a filter assembly, an electrostatic precipitator, and a high velocity blower. The first exhaust duct is substantially unobstructed and in fluid communication with the vent for directing smoke away from the cooking element. The high velocity blower is in fluid communication with the first exhaust duct and the filter assembly for drawing smoke from the cooking element through the vent. The heating system includes a retaining plate, a plurality of heating strips, and an insulating material. The heating strips are disposed between the retaining plate and the heating surface to heat the cooking area for preparing foods thereon.

A cooking system for managing food byproduct, the cooking system including a main body, a griddle, and a drawer. The main body includes structure to support the griddle positioned above a heat element. The griddle includes a cooking surface with an opening defined in the griddle, the opening positioned adjacent a rear end of the cooking surface. The drawer includes a grease container, the drawer being moveable between an inserted position and a removed position. In the inserted position, the grease container is positioned below the opening of the griddle and adjacent a rear side of the main body with a front portion of the drawer accessible along a front side of the main body. With this arrangement, the drawer is removable from the front side of the main body and captures food byproduct in the grease container adjacent the rear side of the main body.

There is provided an apparatus (200, 300, 400, 500) comprising: a container (210, 310, 410, 510) configured to receive a food stuff, a base unit (220, 320, 420, 520) comprising a mounting member and a plurality of outer supporting members (324, 424, 524), a weight sensing unit (230, 330, 430, 530) configured to measure a weight of the food stuff contained in the container, and a connection assembly (240, 340, 440, 540) arranged between the container and the base unit. The weight sensing unit comprises a plurality of strain gauge load sensors arranged at the mounting member of the base unit, and the connection assembly is configured to provide a flexible and insulating connection between the container and the base unit so as to counteract thermal strain interference at the weight sensing unit and to reduce heat transfer between the container and the weight sensing unit.

An iron generally includes a water tank and a steam generator in flow communication with the water tank. The steam generator includes a thin-film heater tube that receives water from the water tank to generate steam inside the heater tube.

An electric heating device includes a box-shaped plug socket provided with a socket-side electroconductive part electrically connected to an electric heater; a power source plug provided with a plug-side electroconductive part electrically connectable to the socket-side electroconductive part and attachable to and detachable from the plug socket; a movement-restricting mechanism for restricting the movement of a protective member both toward and away from a socket-side electroconductive part in a protected state in which the protective member closes an opening of the plug socket and the socket-side electroconductive part are positioned within an interior space; and a switching mechanism for switching the protective member from a restricted movement state into a restriction released state, in which the restriction of movement by the movement restriction mechanism is released, as the power source plug is inserted into the plug socket.

A wirelessly operable slow cooker for cooking food products includes a wireless communication device. A computing device, such as a smartphone, can wirelessly communicate with the slow cooker to control and monitor the slow cooker.