Patent ID: 8455028

Claim:
A method for operating a cooking process based on a multiple number of entered parameters, the method comprising: entering parameters through an input device of the cooking appliance, the entered parameters including (i) at least one of a multiple number of cooking products and a multiple number of cooking programs, (ii) an ending time, and (iii) at least one cooking parameter per cooking product or cooking program; indicating, with an output device, when each cooking product of a multiple number of selected cooking products is to be loaded into a cooking chamber of a cooking appliance and to be removed from the cooking chamber depending on the ending time for each cooking product for conducting the multiple number of cooking programs automatically in a sequence; and running at least two cooking programs in the cooking chamber during a cooking process, each cooking program comprising a plurality of atmosphere settings for the cooking chamber, at least one atmosphere setting of each cooking program being different than the corresponding atmosphere setting of the other cooking program(s), wherein the atmosphere settings include a temperature setting, a moisture setting, and an air flow circulation setting, and wherein running the at least two cooking programs comprises running the at least two cooking programs overlapped at least part of the time by automatically calculating an optimum sequence of atmosphere settings based on the atmosphere settings of the at least two cooking programs, the optimized sequence of atmosphere settings being used for changing the atmosphere in the cooking chamber to optimize the cooking process with regard to at least one of the energy consumed by the cooking appliance, the required time, and the weight loss of each cooking product to minimize dead time and save resources.