Patent ID: 7568618

Claim:
A method of serving and billing for food, comprising: providing an array of enclosures for housing food to be served, each of the enclosures having a food supply opening through which food is inserted into the enclosure from a food supply area, and a customer access opening and closure therefore through which a customer can access the food in the enclosure after the closure is opened; providing a customer ordering location for at least one food item for ordering food using a customer authorization device corresponding to a customer account; generating a customer order signal at the customer ordering location representing the at least one food item ordered by a customer and the customer authorization device; providing a receiving area at said array for said customer authorization device; providing a closure enabling system for each of said closures; indicating the customer which of the enclosures will contain the customer's order; generating an enabling signal when a customer authorization device is in communication with said receiving area; transmitting the enabling signal to the closure enabling system for at least one of the enclosures so as to permit said at least one of the enclosures to be opened; and automatically billing the cost of the food in said at least one of said enclosures to the customer account.