Patent ID: 7227102

Claim:
In combination with a plurality of trays for holding pre-cooked food having been previously cooked in a cooking appliance, each tray having a bottom wall and side and end walls extending up from the bottom wall to an upper rim defining an open top of the tray, a food holding oven for holding pre-cooked food at a selected food holding temperature, said food holding oven comprising: a cabinet having an interior; partitions in the cabinet dividing said interior into a plurality of separate, thermally isolated holding compartments each being sized for removably receiving only one tray of said plurality of trays; a plurality of heat sources in said compartments above said trays adapted for activation to emit radiant heat to the food in the trays to warm the food; and a control mechanism for controlling operation of the heat sources independent of one another whereby the food holding temperature in each compartment may be independently controlled.