Damper mechanisms are provided in conjunction with housings of various different appliances and are disposed at first positions at which the dampers effectively close off or seal the interior regions of the appliances within which various heated, refrigerated, or frozen environments have been established. Such damper mechanisms can be moved to second positions so as to permit food items to be inserted into, or extracted from, the various housings of the appliances, but will automatically return to their first positions so as to again close off or seal the interior regions of the appliances. In this manner, thermal energy is preserved whereby the appliances are enabled to operate at peak energy efficiency.

A cooking appliance, such as a toaster or oven, has a lifting arm including ribs that form a support surface for a food product in a cooking cavity of the appliance. Each rib can include an opening configured to permit infrared radiation from a heating assembly to pass through the rib to the food product supported by the lifting arm and/or to reduce a thermal mass and capacitance of the lifting arm. The heating assembly can include a support and/or heating element with a curved shape having a concave side facing a cooking cavity. The support and/or heating element can have a planar shape when unstressed and a curved shape when stressed. The heating element may be coupled to the support so as to be slidably movable relative to the support, e.g., so the heating element can slide relative to the support.

A cooking appliance, such as a toaster or oven, has a lifting arm including ribs that form a support surface for a food product in a cooking cavity of the appliance. Each rib can include an opening configured to permit infrared radiation from a heating assembly to pass through the rib to the food product supported by the lifting arm and/or to reduce a thermal mass and capacitance of the lifting arm. The heating assembly can include a support and/or heating element with a curved shape having a concave side facing a cooking cavity. The support and/or heating element can have a planar shape when unstressed and a curved shape when stressed. The heating element may be coupled to the support so as to be slidably movable relative to the support, e.g., so the heating element can slide relative to the support.

A toaster (103) having a side wall (10) with a reflective surface (16) to reflect radiant heat towards a toasting chamber (13), and an external surface to which there is attached a sensor assembly (12). The sensor assembly (12) provides a source beam to illuminate part of the product and receives a reflected beam that is received by a sensor, with the sensor providing a signal indicative of a property of the reflected beam and therefore a chromatic property of the product.

A toaster heating assembly (55A, 55B) including: a frame (60); a panel (65) at least partly supported by the frame (60); a spacer (80) mounted to the panel (65); and an elongate heating element (93) having a plurality of spaced apart elongate heating element portions (95) supported by the spacer (80), so that the spacer (80) is located between the plurality of heating element portions (95) and the panel (65) to provide a gap (94) between the plurality of heating element portions (95) and the panel (65).

An infrared toaster and a method of toasting use a support configured to hold a food product relative to an infrared source. A light source and a camera are arranged relative to the support to illuminate the food product and capture digital images of the food product. A processor receives and analyzes successive images from the camera. The processor operates the IR source to achieve a predetermined toasting level of the food product. The processor operates the IR source to terminate operation directing IR energy when the predetermined toasting level is reached.

A grilling apparatus for bacon or other thinly sliced meat. The apparatus includes a base with sidewalls extending from opposite ends of the base. A pair of doors are coupled to opposite sides of the base and movable from an open position to a closed position. A pair of grill plates are removably connected to a corresponding one of the doors. A heating element extends from the base between the side walls. A removable grill is placed over the heating element between the said side walls. When the doors are in the closed position, the grill and the grill plates form an enclosed space, so that when power is supplied to the heating element, heat generated by the heating element is provided by convection to the grill and the grill plates.

The toaster oven of the present invention includes a housing having an internal heating compartment, an upper heating element and a lower heating element. The upper heating element and the lower heating element are independently controllable between zero power and full power in dependence upon a user-selected operating mode.

An improved tortilla toaster that batch heats on two sides simultaneously up to six tortillas where each tortilla is held an optimal distance away from heating source and the oven is unloaded by barrel-rolling the oven assembly so as to avail of gravity and tortilla shape to unload the oven.

A contact baking mechanism of a toaster comprises a baking tray, a fixed bracket, and a mobile mechanism. The baking tray is provided in the fixed bracket and includes a left baking tray and a right baking tray. The mobile mechanism includes a bread tray and a mobile bracket. The bread tray is provided between the left baking tray and the right baking tray, and one end of the bread tray is clamped in the fixed bracket through a T-shaped groove. The mobile bracket is provided outside the fixed bracket and fixedly connected with the bread tray. The left and right baking trays are moved back and forth by an elastic mechanism when the bread tray moves up and down along the T-shaped groove.