Patent ID: 7705274

Claim:
A cooker comprising: a heating chamber having an opening at a front face thereof, the heating chamber in which foods are placed; a door provided in the opening of the heating chamber; an external circulation path provided outside the heating chamber; a suction port that sucks in gas inside the heating chamber, the suction port being provided in an innermost side wall of the heating chamber; a steam generating unit that generates steam by heating water, and releases the generated steam into the external circulation path; a single blower provided in the external circulation path, the blower either returns or exhausts the gas sucked in through the suction port to or from the heating chamber; a heater that heats the steam generated by the steam generating unit and contained in the gas returned to the heating chamber by the blower so as to turn the steam into superheated steam; a blowhole through which the superheated steam heated by the heater blows out into the heating chamber; an exhaust port provided in the external circulation path, the exhaust port through which the gas sucked in through the suction port is exhausted to an outside; a damper that opens and closes the exhaust port; and a control unit that controls the blower and the damper such that, during cooking, the damper is in a position to close the exhaust port and the blower operates to return the gas sucked in through the suction port to the heating chamber, and when the door is opened during cooking, the damper is brought into a position to open the exhaust port and the blower operates to exhaust the gas sucked in through the suction port through the exhaust port in the open state.