Patent ID: 7541559
Filing Date: 2009-06-02
Classification: A21B

Abstract:
1. A cooking device comprising: a housing having an inlet and an outlet; a conveyor assembly comprising a conveyor disposed to convey food products that enter said housing via said inlet along a passageway toward said outlet; one or more heating devices disposed to provide heat to cook said food products while being conveyed along said passageway; a controller that controls any one or more of said conveyor assembly and said heating devices to operate and consume power in a cook mode and an idle mode based on a presence and an absence of said food products on said conveyor, respectively, and wherein power consumption in said cook mode and said idle mode is high and low, respectively; and a device that detects a change in a parameter indicative of said presence or said absence of food products on said conveyor, wherein said controller responds to said detected change to change from one of said cook mode and said idle mode to the other, and wherein said parameter is selected from the group consisting of: temperature and duty cycle of a heater.