Patent ID: 7478749

Claim:
A food preparation system comprising: an ordering station for receiving order information from a customer relating to a food product; a computing device for receiving at least some of the order information from the ordering station and for creating food preparation instructions to be followed to prepare the food product; a conveyor system including a track and a plurality of cars movable along the track, each car including a food-supporting platform and a memory device operably coupled with each car and moveable therewith along said track, said memory device operable for receiving and storing at least some of the order information and at least some information related to said food preparation instructions, each of said cars being independently moveable along said track relative to the other cars; and at least one food preparation station to which the track carries the cars, the food preparation station including a stopping device to stop the movement of each car at the food preparation station, a reader for reading at least some of the information stored in the memory of each car, a prompter for prompting a person at the food preparation station to follow at least one food preparation instruction derived from the information read by said reader, and a selectively operable input device operated by the person at the food preparation station when the prompted food preparation instruction is completed, in order to release the car and allow the car to move from the station.