Patent ID: 8622079

Claim:
An apparatus for cooking food comprising: a vat containing cooking oil; heating means for heating said cooking oil; automatic level means for measuring a level of said cooking oil in said vat; extraction means for extracting a portion of said cooking oil from said vat; input means for introducing fresh cooking oil into said vat connected with a fresh cooking oil supply; usage life means for automatically determining a cooking oil level difference between a maximum cooking oil level in said vat and a predetermined minimum cooking oil level in said vat, said cooking oil level difference corresponding to a predetermined cooking oil usage life; and control means for automatically replacing a predetermined amount of said cooking oil in said vat with said fresh cooking oil to extend said cooking oil usage life by automatically extracting an amount of said cooking oil from said vat upon a triggering event to reduce said cooking oil level to said minimum cooking oil level and introducing said fresh cooking oil into said vat to increase said cooking oil level from said minimum cooking oil level to said maximum cooking oil level.