Patent Publication Number: US-2007116816-A1

Title: Cooking apparatus and method

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-111062, filed on Nov. 19, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus and method, and, more particularly, to a cooking apparatus and method that is capable of cooking food after adding or subtracting a thawing process based on the current storage state of the food to be cooked when the current storage state of the food is different from the predetermined storage state of the food.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Generally, cooking apparatuses are devices that cook food using various heating sources. Based on heating sources, cooking apparatuses are classified into several types of cooking apparatuses. For example, a microwave oven is a cooking apparatus that cooks food using microwaves. In the conventional microwave oven, a user directly inputs cooking time, cooking mode, and kinds of food to be cooked through the use of a key input unit formed at the front panel of the microwave oven. In other words, it is necessary that the user manually input cooking information. Consequently, appropriate cooking conditions are not easily and conveniently set.  
      For this reason, a microwave oven has been developed that is capable of reading a bar code storing cooking information, which is attached to a food package, and cooking food based on the cooking information stored in the bar code. Such a microwave oven is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-0010530. Also, another microwave oven has developed that is capable of storing cooking information on various kinds of food in a memory and, when a user selects food to be cooked, cooking the food based on the cooking information stored in the memory.  
      However, the microwave oven using the bar code has a problem in that, when food, designed to be chilled, is frozen, the food is cooked based on the cooking conditions suitable to the chilled state, and therefore, the food is not appropriately cooked. Specifically, the cooking conditions stored in the bar code printed on the food package are set such that the food can be optimally cooked when it is chilled. Consequently, when the wrongly frozen food, which should have been chilled, is cooked according to the cooking conditions stored in the bar code without leaving the food to thaw before cooking, the food is not optimally cooked.  
      In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, Korean Patent Application No. 2004-53090 (filed Jul. 8, 2004) proposes a cooking apparatus and method, wherein, when food to be cooked, designed to be chilled, is frozen, the food is not directly cooked based on cooking conditions read by a bar-code reader, but the food is thawed to change the state of the food and then cooked.  
      However, the proposed cooking apparatus and method has been developed in order to solve only the problem in that, when food, designed to be chilled, is frozen, and is directly cooked, the food is not appropriately cooked. Consequently, the proposed cooking apparatus and method cannot solve a problem in that, when food, designed to be frozen, is chilled or stored at room temperature, and is directly cooked, the food is not appropriately cooked. In this case, the food designed to be frozen does not need to be thawed before cooking, but the food is thawed based on the cooking information of the food designed to be frozen, including thawing information, and is then cooked. As a result, the food is overcooked.  
      Also, it is premised that the thawing information is stored in a bar code according to the proposed cooking apparatus and method. However, it is difficult to expect thawing information to be stored in a bar code of food designed to be chilled; rather, it is more realistic that thawing information be stored in a memory of a cooking apparatus. Consequently, the necessity of a cooking apparatus with thawing information stored in a memory comes to the fore.  
      When food is selected and cooked in the microwave oven having cooking information on various kinds of food stored in the memory, the following problem is raised. When the food, designed to be chilled, is frozen, or the food, designed to be frozen, is chilled, and is directly cooked, the food is not appropriately cooked. This is because, when cooking information to be stored in a memory is set by microwave oven manufacturers, cooking information of food designed to be chilled is set on the premise that the food designed to be chilled is generally in chilled storage, and cooking information (including a thawing process) of food designed to be frozen is set on the premise that the food designed to be frozen is generally in frozen storage.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Therefore, it is an aspect of the invention to provide a cooking apparatus and method that is capable of cooking food after adding or subtracting a thawing process when the food is in the state that it is not appropriate to cook in the case that the food is automatically cooked based on cooking information stored in a bar code or a memory of the cooking apparatus.  
      In accordance with one aspect, the present invention provides a cooking method including: storing thawing information to thaw various kinds of food to be cooked in a memory of a cooking apparatus; reading and interpreting a bar code, indicated on a package of the food to be cooked, storing kinds of food and cooking information for the food to be cooked; confirming the stored state of the food to be cooked; and, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled and the food to be cooked is frozen, thawing the food to be cooked according to the thawing information, and performing a cooking process based on the cooking information.  
      The stored state of the food to be cooked includes a chilled state and a frozen state.  
      The stored state of the food to be cooked is confirmed by input information obtained by a user&#39;s input of the state of the food to be cooked in response to a message requesting the user to input the state of the food to be cooked in the cooking apparatus.  
      The thawing information includes thawing time set for each food to be cooked or power level of the cooking apparatus.  
      The bar code stores food name, and the thawing information of the food to be cooked is confirmed by interpreting the bar code in the cooking apparatus to confirm the name of the food to be cooked and searching for thawing information of the food to be cooked having the corresponding food name in the memory.  
      The cooking method further includes: when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled and the food to be cooked is chilled, performing a cooking process based on the cooking information without thawing the food to be cooked.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking method including: reading and interpreting a bar code, indicated on a package of food to be cooked, storing kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for the food to be cooked; confirming the stored state of the food to be cooked; and, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be frozen and the food to be cooked is chilled, performing a cooking process based on the other cooking information without thawing the food to be cooked.  
      The stored state of the food to be cooked includes a chilled state and a frozen state.  
      The stored state of the food to be cooked is confirmed by input information obtained by a user&#39;s input of the state of the food to be cooked in response to a message requesting the user to input the state of the food to be cooked in the cooking apparatus.  
      The cooking method further includes: when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be frozen and the food to be cooked is frozen, thawing the food to be cooked according to the thawing information, and performing a cooking process based on the cooking information.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus including: a bar-code reader to read a bar code, indicated on a package of food to be cooked, storing kinds of food and cooking information for the food to be cooked; a memory to store thawing information of food designed to be chilled, which is a kind of the food to be cooked; a control unit to interpret the kind of food and the cooking information read by the bar-code reader and control the food to be thawed according to the thawing information stored in the memory and to be cooked based on the cooking information; and a driving unit to perform a cooking process according to a control command from the control unit.  
      The thawing information includes thawing time set for each food to be cooked or power level of the driving unit.  
      The bar code stores food name, and, when the food to be cooked, designed to be chilled, is frozen, the control unit interprets the bar code to confirm the name of the food to be cooked and confirms thawing information of the food to be cooked having the corresponding food name in the memory.  
      The cooking apparatus further includes: a display unit to display a message requesting a user to input the state of the food to be cooked, i.e., the chilled state or the frozen state.  
      The cooking apparatus further includes: an input unit having a chilled-state button, which is selected by the user when the food to be cooked is chilled, and a frozen-state button, which is selected by the user when the food to be cooked is frozen.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus including: a bar-code reader to read a bar code, indicated on a package of food to be cooked, storing kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for the food to be cooked; a control unit to interpret the cooking information read by the bar-code reader and, when the food to be cooked, designed to be frozen, is chilled, control the food to be cooked based on the cooking information without thawing the food to be cooked; and a driving unit to perform a cooking process according to a control command from the control unit.  
      The cooking apparatus further includes: a display unit to display a message requesting a user to input the state of the food to be cooked, i.e., the chilled state or the frozen state.  
      The cooking apparatus further includes: an input unit having a chilled-state button, which is selected by the user when the food to be cooked is chilled, and a frozen-state button, which is selected by the user when the food to be cooked is frozen.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking method including: storing kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for food to be cooked in a memory of a cooking apparatus; searching for the cooking information of food to be cooked, which is selected by a user, in the memory; confirming the stored state of the food to be cooked; and, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled and the food to be cooked is frozen, thawing the food to be cooked according to the thawing information stored in the memory, and performing a cooking process based on the cooking information stored in the memory.  
      The cooking method further includes: when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled and the food to be cooked is chilled, performing a cooking process based on the cooking information without thawing the food to be cooked.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking method including: storing kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for food to be cooked in a memory of a cooking apparatus; searching for the cooking information of food to be cooked, which is selected by a user, in the memory; confirming the stored state of the food to be cooked; and, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be frozen and the food to be cooked is chilled, performing a cooking process based on the other cooking information stored in the memory excluding the thawing information.  
      The stored state of the food to be cooked includes a chilled state and a frozen state, and the stored state of the food to be cooked is confirmed by input information obtained by a user&#39;s input of the state of the food to be cooked in response to a message requesting the user to input the state of the food to be cooked in the cooking apparatus.  
      In accordance with another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus including: a memory to store kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for food to be cooked; an input unit having a chilled-state button, which is selected when the food to be cooked is chilled, and a frozen-state button, which is selected when the food to be cooked is frozen; a control unit to control the food to be thawed according to the thawing information and then the food to be cooked based on the cooking information, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled and the food to be cooked is frozen; and a driving unit to perform a cooking process according to a control command from the control unit.  
      In accordance with yet another aspect, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus including: a memory to store kinds of food, cooking information, and thawing information for food to be cooked; an input unit having a chilled-state button, which is selected when the food to be cooked is chilled, and a frozen-state button, which is selected when the food to be cooked is frozen; a control unit to control the food to be cooked based on the other cooking information excluding the thawing information without thawing the food to be cooked, when the kind of food for the food to be cooked is food designed to be frozen and the food to be cooked is chilled; and a driving unit to perform a cooking process according to a control command from the control unit.  
      The cooking apparatus further includes: a display unit to display a message requesting a user to input the state of the food to be cooked.  
      Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a front view showing a microwave oven, which is a kind of cooking apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a control block diagram of the microwave oven shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code printed on a package of food designed to be chilled;  
       FIG. 4  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code printed on a package of food designed to be frozen;  
       FIG. 5  is a flow chart illustrating a cooking method according to a first embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 6  is a front view showing a microwave oven, which is a kind of cooking apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 7  is a control block diagram of the microwave oven shown in  FIG. 6 ; and  
       FIG. 8  is a flow chart illustrating a cooking method according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiment of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiment is described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , a microwave oven, which is a kind of cooking apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, includes a door  11  disposed in front of an oven body  10  and a front panel  12  disposed at the right side of the door  11 .  
      The front panel  12  includes a display unit  13  disposed at the upper part thereof to display the operation of the microwave oven, a built-in bar-code reader  14  disposed below the display unit  13  to read a bar code, and an input unit  15  disposed below the bar-code reader  14 . The input unit  15  has a plurality of input buttons. For example, the input unit  15  has a chilled-state button  16 , a frozen-state button  17 , and other buttons for a user to input control commands.  
      The chilled-state button  16  and the frozen-state button  17  are used for the user to input the state of food to be cooked. When the food to be cooked is in chilled storage, a user presses the chilled-state button  16 . When the food to be cooked is in frozen storage, the user presses the frozen-state button  17 . When the chilled-state button  16  or the frozen-state button  17  is pressed, the state of the food to be cooked is transmitted to a control unit  20  (See  FIG. 2 ), which will be described below.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , the microwave oven shown in  FIG. 1  further includes a magnetron-driving unit  22  to drive a magnetron  21  that generates microwaves to be supplied to a cooking chamber (not shown), a control unit  20  to interpret a bar code read by the bar-code reader  14  to confirm cooking information stored in the bar code and control the respective components of the microwave oven such that the food is cooked according to the cooking information, and a memory  18  to store thawing information of food designed to be chilled.  
      The contents of cooking information stored in the bar code used in this embodiment are different based on whether the bar code is used for food designed to be chilled or food designed to be frozen. Specifically, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the bar code used for the food designed to be chilled stores cooking information including kinds of food, food name, and various cooking conditions. Also, as shown in  FIG. 4 , the bar code used for the food designed to be frozen stores cooking information including kinds of food, thawing time, and various cooking conditions.  
      Based on kinds of food, food having a printed bar code is classified into food designed to be chilled, which is necessary to be kept in chilled storage, and food designed to be frozen, which is necessary to be kept in frozen storage. Different bar code values are given according to kinds of food. For example, two bits are assigned to the bar code to store the kinds of food. When the two-bit bar code is read “00,” it is determined that the food is designed to be chilled. When the two-bit bar code is read “01,” it is determined that the food is designed to be frozen. In this case, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the kind of food of the bar code used for food designed to be chilled is indicated “00,” and, as shown in  FIG. 4 , the kind of food of the bar code used for food designed to be frozen is indicated “01.” 
      The food name is information for the control unit to confirm food to be cooked. In other words, the food name serves as identification (ID) of the food to be cooked. For example, five bits are assigned to the bar code to store the food name. When the five-bit bar code is read “00 000,” it is indicated that the food to be cooked is A. When the five-bit bar code is read “00 001,” it is indicated that the food to be cooked is B.  
      The thawing time is set to thaw food designed to be frozen before the food is cooked. For example, as shown in  FIG. 4 , three bits are assigned to the bar code for storing the thawing time. When the bar code is read “000,” it is determined that the thawing time is 60 seconds. When the bar code is read “111,” it is determined that the thawing time is 130 seconds. The thawing time may vary depending upon kinds of food to be cooked.  
      The cooking conditions include cooking mode, such as cooking by microwaves or grill cooking by an electric heater mounted in the microwave oven, cooking time, and power level to decide the output of the magnetron.  
      The control unit  20  stores interpreting rules to read the bar codes shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 . Specifically, the interpreting rules prescribe what cooking information each line of the bar code stores, and what the detailed contents of the cooking information corresponding to the value of the read bar code are.  
      The thawing information stored in the memory  18  includes thawing time and power level during thawing, as indicated in Table 1 below. The thawing information is given for each food designed to be chilled. The power level indicated in Table 1 is a power level supplied to the magnetron during thawing, which is expressed by percentage of the maximum power.  
                           TABLE 1                                      Thawing information                             Food name   Thawing time   Power level               A   160 seconds   50%       B   220 seconds   60%       . . .   . . .   . . .                  
 
      A flash memory having easy input and output of data may be used as the above-mentioned memory such that, whenever new food designed to be chilled comes into the market, thawing information of the food can be easily stored in the memory. In this case, the thawing information stored in the flash memory may be updated in various manners, an example of which is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-78335 (Data processing method of internet microwave oven memory pack).  
      Now, a cooking method according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to  FIG. 5 . When a user brings a bar code printed on a food package to the bar-code reader  14 , the bar-code reader  14  reads the bar code, and the control unit  20  interprets cooking information stored in the bar code using the interpreting rules ( 30 ).  
      Upon completion of the interpretation of the bar code, the control unit  20  determines, referring to the kinds of food, whether the food to be cooked is designed to be chilled ( 32 ). When it is determined that the food to be cooked is designed to be chilled, an inquiry about the state of the food is displayed on the display unit  13  so that the user can input the state of the food designed to be chilled ( 34 ). When the food designed to be chilled is chilled, the user presses the chilled-state button  16  of the input unit  15 . When the food designed to be chilled is frozen, the user presses the frozen-state button  17  of the input unit  15 .  
      Subsequently, the control unit  20  determines whether the chilled-state button  16  is pressed by the user (i.e., the food designed to be chilled is chilled) ( 36 ). When it is determined that the chilled-state button  16  is pressed by the user, the control unit  20  interprets that the food designed to be chilled is chilled, and thus a cooking process is preformed according to the interpreted cooking conditions ( 38 ). When it is determined that the chilled-state button  16  is not pressed, on the other hand, the control unit  20  determines whether the frozen-state button  17  is pressed by the user (i.e., the food designed to be chilled is frozen) ( 40 ).  
      When it is determined that the frozen-state button  17  is not pressed, the procedure is returned to Operation  36 . When it is determined that the frozen-state button  17  is pressed by the user, on the other hand, the control unit  20  interprets the bar code to search for the thawing information of the food designed to be chilled having the corresponding food name in the memory  18 . Then, the control unit  20  drives the magnetron  21  at the power level of the thawing information for the thawing time of the thawing information to thaw the food designed to be chilled, which is frozen ( 42 ). After the food is thawed, and is then changed into the state in which the food can be appropriately cooked, the cooking process is carried out according to the interpreted cooking conditions (cooking mode, cooking time, power level) ( 44 ).  
      As can be easily understood from the above description, food is not directly cooked based on the interpreted cooking conditions when the food, designed to be chilled, is frozen. The food designed to be chilled, which is frozen, is thawed according to the thawing information stored in the memory  18  such that the state of the food designed to be chilled, which is frozen, is similar to the chilled storage state of the food designed to chilled, and is then cooked based on the cooking conditions. Consequently, the food is optimally cooked.  
      Meanwhile, when it is determined at Operation  32  that the food to be cooked is not designed to be chilled, the control unit  20  determines whether the food to be cooked is designed to be frozen ( 46 ). When it is determined that the food to be cooked is not designed to be frozen, the control unit  20  determines that it is unnecessary for the present invention to be applied to the food to be cooked, or an error occurs during the bar code reading or interpretation, and the procedure is terminated. When it is determined that the food to be cooked is designed to be frozen, on the other hand, an inquiry about the state of the food is displayed on the display unit  13  so that the user can input the state of the food designed to be chilled ( 48 ). When the food designed to be frozen is chilled, the user presses the chilled-state button  16  of the input unit  15 . When the food designed to be frozen is frozen, the user presses the frozen-state button  17  of the input unit  15 .  
      Subsequently, the control unit  20  determines whether the frozen-state button  17  is pressed by the user (i.e., the food designed to be frozen is frozen) ( 50 ). When it is determined that the frozen-state button  17  is pressed by the user, the control unit  20  interprets that the food designed to be frozen is frozen. Consequently, the food is thawed, and a cooking process is preformed according to the interpreted cooking conditions ( 52 ). When it is determined that the frozen-state button  17  is not pressed, on the other hand, the control unit  20  determines whether the chilled-state button  16  is pressed by the user (i.e., the food designed to be frozen is chilled) ( 54 ).  
      When it is determined that the chilled-state button  16  is not pressed, the procedure is returned to Operation  50 . When it is determined that the chilled-state button  16  is pressed by the user, on the other hand, the cooking process is carried out according to the interpreted cooking conditions (cooking mode, cooking time, power level) without performing a thawing process (i.e., ignoring the thawing information of the cooking information confirmed by interpreting the bar code).  
      As can be easily understood from the above description, food is not directly cooked based on the interpreted cooking conditions when the food, designed to be frozen, is chilled. The food is cooked according to the other cooking conditions excluding the thawing time. Consequently, the food is optimally cooked.  
      In this embodiment, kinds of food, food name, thawing information, and various cooking conditions are included in the cooking information. It is possible, however, that only the thawing information and the cooking conditions are included in the cooking information.  
      As shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , a microwave oven, which is a kind of cooking apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention, has food buttons disposed at an input part  65  for a user to select food to be cooked. Names of food to be cooked (for example, fish button  68  and meat button  69 ) are printed on the food buttons so that the user can easily select the food to be cooked. Similar to the first embodiment, the input part  65  also has a chilled-state button  66 , a frozen-state button  67 , and other buttons for a user to input control commands.  
      However, the selection of food to be cooked may be performed in other manners. For example, a direction movement button (not shown) and an enter button (not shown) may be disposed at the input unit  65 . In this case, the user pushes the direction movement button so that various kinds of food to be cooked are sequentially displayed on the display unit  13 , and, when the food that the user wishes to cook is displayed on the display unit  13 , the user pushes the enter button to select the displayed food.  
      Also, the microwave oven according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes a memory  64  to store cooking information and thawing information of food designed to be chilled and cooking information of food designed to be frozen. In this case, food to be cooked is classified into food designed to be chilled and food designed to be frozen, which are stored in the memory, and cooking information is set for each food to be cooked. Cooking information of food designed to be chilled is set on the premise that the food designed to be chilled is generally in chilled storage, and cooking information of food designed to be frozen is set on the premise that the food designed to be frozen is generally in frozen storage. Consequently, thawing information is not included in the cooking information of the food designed to be chilled, and therefore, thawing information of the food designed to be chilled is separately stored. On the other hand, thawing information is included in the cooking information of the food designed to be frozen. In this case, the thawing information includes thawing time and power level, which are necessary to thaw the food designed to be chilled or the food designed to be frozen.  
      In this embodiment, food to be cooked is classified into food designed to be chilled and food designed to be frozen, which are stored, and a control unit  63  determines whether food to be cooked, which has arbitrary cooking information, is food designed to be chilled or food designed to be frozen. However, it is possible that kinds of food, by which it is determined whether food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled or food designed to be frozen, is included together with the cooking information such that the control unit  63  confirms the kind of food having arbitrary cooking information.  
      Also, the microwave oven according to the second embodiment of the present invention further includes the control unit  63  to control the respective components of the microwave oven such that a cooking process is performed according to the cooking information of the corresponding food stored in the memory  64  when the user selects the food to be cooked.  
      As can be seen from the above description, the first embodiment, in which the cooking information for automatic cooking is stored in the bar code, is different from the second embodiment, in which the cooking information for automatic cooking is stored in the memory  64 . Other components of the microwave oven used in the second embodiment are identical to those of the microwave oven according to the first embodiment described with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2  (except the description of the bar-code reader  14  and the memory  18  shown in  FIG. 2 ).  
      Now, a cooking method according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to  FIG. 8 . When a user puts food to be cooked into the cooking chamber, and pushes the food buttons  68  and  69  of the input unit  65  to select food to be cooked, the control unit  63  searches for the cooking information of the corresponding food to be cooked in the memory  64 , determines whether the food to be cooked is food designed to be chilled or food designed to be frozen ( 72 ,  86 ), and performs Operations  74 - 84  and  88 - 96 . The second embodiment is identical to the first embodiment in that food designed to be chilled is thawed or food designed to be frozen is not thawed before cooking depending upon the state of food to be cooked. Other parts of Operations  74 - 84  and  88 - 96  are identical to the first embodiment (excluding the matters related to the bar code).  
      In the first and second embodiments of the present invention, food to be cooked is classified into food designed to be chilled and food designed to be frozen. However, the present invention may be applied to room-temperate storage food. This is because cooking of room-temperate storage food, which is frozen, has the same problem as cooking of food designed to be chilled, which is frozen.  
      As apparent from the above description, a cooking process is performed based on the current storage state of the food to be cooked when the current storage state of the food is different from the predetermined storage state of the food, i.e., when the food, designed to be chilled, is frozen, or the food, designed to be frozen, is chilled. Consequently, the present invention has the effect of accomplishing optimal cooking.  
      Especially, in the case that the cooking process is automatically performed using the cooking information stored in the bar code or the memory, when the food, designed to be chilled, is frozen, it is determined that it is inappropriate to cook the food according to the cooking information, and the food is thawed before cooking, and, when the food, designed to be frozen, is chilled, the food is cooked without thawing the food. Consequently, the present invention has the effect of accomplishing appropriate cooking.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.