Patent ID: 8809749

Claim:
A smoking apparatus for smoking foodstuffs comprising: a plurality of heating elements, each heating element having a surface upon which a material intended to be burned to generate smoke for smoking foodstuffs may be positioned, each of the heating elements positioned in close proximity to each other and in a side by side orientation; a control unit to control operation of the heating elements between an on state and an off state, the control unit being structurally configured to control at least two of the plurality of heating elements individually between the on state and the off state, and structurally configured to automatically sequentially activate each one of the at least two of the plurality of heating elements; wherein, in use, a material to be burned is positioned upon the at least two of the heating elements and the control unit controls the operation of the at least two of the heating elements such that the at least two of the heating elements are switched between the off state and the on state sequentially and automatically by the control unit such that only one of the at least two of the plurality of heating elements is in the on state at any one time, and wherein the plurality of heating elements are located in a first compartment that is physically separate from a second compartment in which the foodstuffs reside during smoking, so that the heating elements are solely for the generation of smoke, the first and second compartments being in fluid communication such that the smoke generated in the first compartment enters the second compartment to impart smoke to said foodstuffs.