Patent ID: 8604393

Claim:
A cooking appliance comprising: a hot plate, a control panel for controlling the operation of the hotplate, the control panel comprising a translucent plate having a top surface, and a plurality of operating elements with each operating element having associated lighting elements located below the top surface of the translucent plate, the location of the operating elements being identifiable on the top surface of the translucent plate only when the associated lighting elements are energized, the plurality of operating elements comprising an on-off element having an associated lighting element that is energized to make the on-off element identifiable on the top surface of the translucent plate when power is supplied to the control panel, the plurality of operating elements also including one or more operating elements useable for altering one or more operating parameters, the associated lighting elements of the one or more operating elements controllable to be energized only when power is supplied to the control panel and the cooking appliance is switched from an “off” status to an “on” status by use of the on-off element.