A heating appliance for cooking, which comprises: a housing; a top plate in the form of a plate-like member made of a material having an electrically insulating property and a light transmitting property and mounted atop the housing; a heating unit (44, 45) disposed inside the housing for heating an article to be heated which has been placed on a top surface of the housing; an operating region defined on the top plate and formed by coloring the top plate so as to have a low transmittance of light passing through the top plate; a plurality of conductor detecting units (49a-51a) formed of an electrically conductive material on a rear surface of the operating region; a control unit operable to control the heating unit based on a command inputted in response to detection that a surface portion of the top plate proximate to the conductor detecting units has been touched; a conductor connector made of an electrically conductive material and provided on the rear surface of the operating region and connected with an outer edge of the conductor detecting units; a connecting terminal held in contact with the conductor connector and electrically connected with the control unit; a plurality of planar light emitting members which are lit individually, and which are disposed below the conductor detecting units in face-to-face relation thereto respectively; and a plurality of light sources for emitting rays of light that are incident upon the plural planar light emitting members, respectively; wherein the conductor detecting units are provided with a frame display (49b-51b) formed by a frame shaped slotted portion, and a command display (49c-51c) formed inwardly of the frame display and bearing an alphanumerical character or a pictorial letter in the form of a slotted portion for displaying the command; and wherein a light shielding film having an insulating property is formed around the conductor detecting units and the conductor connector, and the control unit is operable to cause the plural planar light emitting members to be lit one at a time, so that when the control unit causes the planar light emitting member to emit light to thereby cause the frame display and the command display to be illuminated, with the planar light emitting member being blacked out to render the frame display and the command display difficult to see. a housing; a top plate in the form of a plate-like member made of a material having an electrically insulating property and a light transmitting property and mounted atop the housing; a heating unit (44, 45) disposed inside the housing for heating an article to be heated which has been placed on a top surface of the housing; an operating region defined on the top plate and formed by coloring the top plate so as to have a low transmittance of light passing through the top plate; a plurality of conductor detecting units (49a-51a) formed of an electrically conductive material on a rear surface of the operating region; a control unit operable to control the heating unit based on a command inputted in response to detection that a surface portion of the top plate proximate to the conductor detecting units has been touched; a conductor connector made of an electrically conductive material and provided on the rear surface of the operating region and connected with an outer edge of the conductor detecting units; a connecting terminal held in contact with the conductor connector and electrically connected with the control unit; a plurality of planar light emitting members which are lit individually, and which are disposed below the conductor detecting units in face-to-face relation thereto respectively; and a plurality of light sources for emitting rays of light that are incident upon the plural planar light emitting members, respectively; wherein the conductor detecting units are provided with a frame display (49b-51b) formed by a frame shaped slotted portion, and a command display (49c-51c) formed inwardly of the frame display and bearing an alphanumerical character or a pictorial letter in the form of a slotted portion for displaying the command; and wherein a light shielding film having an insulating property is formed around the conductor detecting units and the conductor connector, and the control unit is operable to cause the plural planar light emitting members to be lit one at a time, so that when the control unit causes the planar light emitting member to emit light to thereby cause the frame display and the command display to be illuminated, with the planar light emitting member being blacked out to render the frame display and the command display difficult to see.