An electromagnetic cooker includes: a plane section that faces a bottom face part of a cooking pot when the cooking pot is placed; a frame body section that is erected from the plane section and houses the cooking pot to face a side face part of the cooking pot when the cooking pot is placed; a first heating section that is provided in the plane section and heats the bottom face part of the cooking pot by an induction heating method; and a second heating section that is provided in the frame body section and heats the side face part of the cooking pot by a method different from the induction heating method.

An end of arm tool for robotic cooking system having: a rotary actuator, a flexible coupling, a linear actuator, a gripper operably connected with the linear actuator and designed to releasably grip an object. The flexible coupling is connected with the rotary actuator and releasably engaging an engagement means of a plurality of the containers for holding a supply of an ingredient. The flexible coupling is designed to compensate misalignment and/or ensure easy entering of the engaging part of the flexible coupling to the corresponding engagement means of the plurality of the containers. The gripper comprising two rods associated with load cells, providing a representation of a load on the gripper; each rod is provided with a ledge having one or more recesses, designed to accommodate an object gripped; the rods are provided with heads, to engage with cavities on a container for holding a supply of an ingredient.

Embodiments include systems and methods for heating materials, including heating materials for cooking and soldering. A representative system and method for cooking food includes passing electric current through the food, sensing a characteristic of the food, and modulating the electric current in response to the characteristic of the food to achieve a selected internal temperature of the food. The system and method can include searing the food with hot oil or photons directed at the surface of the food. A representative system and method for heating a material includes modulating a plurality of semiconductor light sources to emit photons toward the material, measuring a temperature of the material, and modulating the plurality of semiconductor light sources in response to the temperature of the material. The material can include solder and the method can include heating solder in a reflow soldering process.

Methods for heat treating food products include controlling a temperature of a heating element to a maximum temperature correlated to a desired temperature for the food product. A sensed temperature of the heating element may be used to control the maximum temperature. An oven includes a heating element and a temperature sensor configured to sense the temperature of the heating element, and a controller that limits the temperature of the heating element based on output from the temperature sensor.

A cooking system includes a housing having at least one internal compartment and a cooking container receivable within said at least one internal compartment. A cooking volume is defined within an interior of said cooking container. A bottom surface of said cooking container is angled upwardly. A heating element is associated with said at least one internal compartment.

There is provided an apparatus for heating a pot of food or beverage, the apparatus comprising at least one receptacle (20), each receptacle for temporarily receiving a pot of food or beverage to be heated. Each receptacle comprises a base (22), sidewalls (24), and an opening opposite from the base (22) for receiving the pot; a heater element (43) mounted to the sidewalls; a temperature sensor (45) mounted to the base; a pot sensor (40, 41) for detecting whether or not a pot is present in the receptacle; and a controller connected to the heater element, temperature sensor, and pot sensor. The controller is configured to control the heater element in response to the pot sensor and temperature sensor.

A household PEF cooking appliance includes a cooking product container fillable with liquid and cooking product and including, on its inner faces, a plurality of mutually insulated electrodes. An excitation device supplies at least two of the plurality of electrodes with pulsed electric signals, and a resistance measuring device applies a measuring signal to at least two of the plurality of the electrodes in order to measure an associated current signal and to determine a resistance value of a content of the cooking product container. A control device operates the excitation device and the resistance measuring device separately and operates the excitation device based on the resistance value.

Disclosed is a conditioner to condition nutritional substances with conditioning programs that power conditioning elements for percentage of the time of a repeating temporal cycle. During each temporal cycle, each required conditioning element may be activated for only a percentage of the full time of the temporal cycle. The conditioner includes temperature controls that are responsive to sensor feedback from the conditioner and that modify the conditioning element activation during the cycles.

Food preparation includes utilizing food immersion into low temperature cooking fluids, high temperature cooking fluids, or a combination of applications thereof. Foods are generally closely wrapped in vented, pliable, formidable outer skins. An example construction of such an outer skin is provided, as are examples of food preparation processes.

Provided is a cooking apparatus (10). The cooking apparatus comprises a food chamber (12), and a steam supply (16, 20, 23) for supplying steam to the food chamber. A control arrangement (22, 28) controls the steam supply to maintain a steam concentration in air inside the food chamber which is below saturation. Further provided is a method of cooking.