Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the system including a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. A lid is attachable about the upper portion of the housing and is configured to extend across the opening to the hollow chamber. At least one heating element is associated with at least one of said housing and said lid. The cooking system is operable in a plurality of modes including a pressure cooking mode and a dry cooking mode. In the pressure cooking mode, the cooking system is operable as a pressure cooker and in the dry cooking mode, the cooking system is operable as a dry cooker.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the system including a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. A lid is movably attached to the housing. The lid is moveable about a hinged axis between an open position and a closed position. A foot for supporting the housing is substantially vertically aligned with the hinge axis to stabilize the housing when the housing is oriented at a 15 degree angle and the lid is in the open position.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the system including a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. A food container having a hollow container interior is positionable within the hollow chamber. An end of the food container extends above the upper portion of the housing when the container is installed within the hollow chamber. A lid is moveably attached to the housing and is moveable between a first position that covers the upper portion of the housing and the opening to the hollow chamber when the food container is installed within the hollow chamber and a second position where the lid does not cover the opening to the hollow chamber. At least one heating element is associated with at least one of said lid and said housing.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the cooking system being functional in a plurality of cooking modes. The cooking system includes a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. A first lid is adapted to cover the opening to the hollow chamber. At least one heating element is associated with at least one of the housing and the lid. The cooking system is operable in an air frying mode and a conductive cooking mode. The upper portion of the housing includes a feature of a locking system for locking a second lid to the housing.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the system including a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. At least one lid is movable relative to the housing. At least one heating element is associated with at least one of the housing and the at least one lid and at least one detector is operable to detect a configuration of the at least one lid. The cooking system is operable in a plurality of cooking modes and operation of a particular cooking mode is dependent on a detected configuration of the at least one lid by the at least one detector.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the cooking system is functional in a plurality of cooking modes. The cooking system including a housing defining a hollow chamber configured to receive a food container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber. A lid is movable relative to the housing and at least one heating element is associated with said lid. In a first cooking mode of the plurality of cooking modes, the at least one heating element is open to airflow between the at least one heating element and the hollow chamber, and in a second cooking mode, the at least one heating element is closed to airflow between the at least one heating element and the hollow chamber.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system for cooking food, the cooking system being functional in a plurality of cooking modes. The cooking system includes a housing having a hollow chamber, and a cooking lid movable between an open position and a closed position relative to the housing. At least one heating element is associated with said lid. The cooking system is operable in a plurality of modes including a convective cooking mode and a pressure cooking mode. The cooking lid is configurable in the closed position when the cooking system is in both the convective cooking mode and the pressure cooking mode.

Disclosed herein is a cooking system including a housing defining a hollow chamber for receiving a cooking container. The housing has an upper portion defining an opening to the hollow chamber and includes a heating element. A first portion of a bayonet locking system is located on the upper portion, about the opening. A pressure cooking lid configured to cover the opening and seal the cooking container includes a second portion of the bayonet locking system engageable with the first portion to lock the pressure cooking lid to the housing. A convection cooking lid is moveable between a first position where the convection cooking lid covers the opening and a second position where the convection cooking lid is spaced away from the opening. The convection cooking lid includes a heating element and a fan. The cooking system is operable in a pressure cooking mode and a convective cooking mode.

An interlocking method and blending apparatus is provided which includes a base, container, and lid. The apparatus comprises light emitters, light sensors, and light reflectors. Light is emitted by the light emitters from the base, through the container, and toward the lid. Light reflectors in the lid reflect the light back through the container and toward the base. The light sensors detect the reflected light and can be used to control operation of the blender and illumination of the container. Light may be in the visible spectrum, or sub-visible spectrum. The light emitters and light sensors may be at the base and/or the bottom of the container.

There is provided an apparatus (10) for processing food stuff. The apparatus (10) comprises a container (110) for receiving a food stuff; a food processing unit (120) for processing the food stuff in the container; a force sensor (130) for measuring an operation parameter, and a control unit (140) for operating the food processing unit (120) based on measurements received from the sensor. The sensor is furthermore configured to measure an interaction with the apparatus by a user. The control unit is configured to receive measurements of the user interaction from the sensor (130) and process the received measurements to determine if a predetermined user interaction or a predetermined user interaction pattern corresponding to a user input command has been performed by the user.