Patent ID: 7848845

Claim:
A remotely programmable food product holding system, which comprises: a hand held computer and at least one food product holding apparatus communicatively coupled to the hand held computer, the hand held computer including: a processor, the processor operating in accordance with software; a display, the display being operatively coupled to the processor; at least one entry device, the at least one entry device being operatively coupled to the processor, the at least one entry device being selectable by a user to enter data into the hand held computer; and a first communication interface, the first communication interface being operatively coupled to the processor, the first communication interface being adapted for communicatively coupling the hand held computer and the food product holding apparatus, the at least one entry device being selectable by the user to transmit the entered data to at least one food product holding apparatus via the first communication interface; the at least one food product holding apparatus including: a second communication interface, the second communication interface being adapted for communicatively coupling the at least one product holding apparatus and the hand held computer; a timer system, the timer system being operatively coupled to the second communication interface, the timer system being programmed in accordance with the data transmitted from the hand held computer; and a temperature control system, the temperature control system being operatively coupled to the second communication interface, the temperature control system being programmed in accordance with the data transmitted from the hand held computer; wherein the display includes a touch screen display, the touch screen display including at least one field, the at least one field being selectable by the user and including the at least one entry device; wherein the at least one field includes at least one of a warmer select field, product select field, edit field, paste box, check data box, save box, and recall box; wherein data from the food product holding apparatus is downloaded and compared to data entered into the hand held computer in response to the check data box being selected by the user, and wherein an exit box and an update box are displayed and data entered into the hand held computer is uploaded to the food product holding apparatus in response to the update box being selected by the user; and wherein a quantity of exceptions is displayed, the exceptions being representative of differences between the downloaded data and the entered data.