Method for controlling exposure in a cooking appliance that has an integrated camera, the method comprising: - recording a start image with a specified basic exposure time; - segmenting the start image into food surface portions and non-food surface portions; - creating an exposure mask for the food surface portions, which exposure mask hides the non-food surface portions; - adjusting the exposure time using the exposure mask, so that a specified target brightness of the food surface portions is achieved; and - recording a target image with the adjusted exposure time; wherein the segmentation of the start image into food surface portions and non-food surface portions involves one or more of the following steps: - edge detection, for detecting singly contiguous regions; - taking into account colour values, wherein regions of similar colour are preferably classified as contiguous regions; - taking into account singly contiguous regions, wherein singly contiguous regions are preferably classified as food surface portions and non-singly contiguous regions are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - taking into account the distance of regions from the centre and/or the edge of the food support, wherein regions in the centre are preferably classified as food surface portions and surface portions at the edge are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - taking into account the shape and colour of known food carriers, wherein regions having this shape and colour are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - detecting the structure of the food and distinguishing from non-food surface content; and wherein adjusting the exposure time comprises: - determining a first average brightness value of the pixels of the food surface portions; and - determining, on the basis of the basic exposure time and the first average brightness value, the exposure time for the specified target brightness. - recording a start image with a specified basic exposure time; - segmenting the start image into food surface portions and non-food surface portions; - creating an exposure mask for the food surface portions, which exposure mask hides the non-food surface portions; - adjusting the exposure time using the exposure mask, so that a specified target brightness of the food surface portions is achieved; and - recording a target image with the adjusted exposure time; - edge detection, for detecting singly contiguous regions; - taking into account colour values, wherein regions of similar colour are preferably classified as contiguous regions; - taking into account singly contiguous regions, wherein singly contiguous regions are preferably classified as food surface portions and non-singly contiguous regions are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - taking into account the distance of regions from the centre and/or the edge of the food support, wherein regions in the centre are preferably classified as food surface portions and surface portions at the edge are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - taking into account the shape and colour of known food carriers, wherein regions having this shape and colour are preferably classified as non-food surface portions; - detecting the structure of the food and distinguishing from non-food surface content; - determining a first average brightness value of the pixels of the food surface portions; and - determining, on the basis of the basic exposure time and the first average brightness value, the exposure time for the specified target brightness. <EOS>