Patent ID: 8122877

Claim:
A free-standing apparatus for cooking or preparing food, for mass or commercial foodservice applications, said free-standing apparatus comprising: an outer casing, a top surface having a cooktop, a front wall, a rear wall, a second front upper wall extending above said top surface, a suction device configured to extract gases or fumes that are generated at and released from said cooktop, a filtering device configured to filter said gases or fumes being extracted, wherein said suction device comprises a suction mouth disposed between said cooktop and said second front upper wall and extending substantially over the entire width of said outer casing; wherein said suction device includes a suction conduit that is disposed under said mouth, oriented downwards, and arranged centrally and vertically in said outer casing, wherein a suction fan is associated with said suction conduit, wherein a lower portion of said conduit is connected via an inflow port to at least a filtering chamber that includes a related exhaust section, wherein said filtering chamber has a prism shape having a quadrangular cross-section, and is provided with a filter plate arranged between two diagonally opposed, non contiguous sides of said filtering chamber, wherein said filter plate is arranged on a plane that is substantially orthogonal to said rear wall, and subdivides said filtering chamber into first and second contiguous prismatic volumes, each of said first and second contiguous prismatic volumes having a triangular cross-section and wherein the suction fan exhausts air in a rearward direction, said air enters into said air filtering device in a direction substantially horizontally orthogonal to said rearward direction and said exhausts said filtering device downwardly.