Patent ID: 6943324

Claim:
A cooking appliance capable of performing baking operations comprising: a cabinet; an oven cavity arranged within the cabinet, said oven including top, bottom, rear and opposing side portions; a gas burner element positioned to radiate heat into the oven cavity; a convection airflow system including a convection fan adapted to circulate a convection airflow within the oven cavity; an electric heating system including an electric heating element disposed adjacent to the convection fan so as to be exposed to the convection airflow; and a control unit operatively connected to each of the gas burner element, the electric heating element and the convection airflow system wherein, upon selection of a baking operation for the cooking appliance, the control unit activates each of the gas burner element, the electric heating element and the convection airflow system to establish a substantially constant oven cavity temperature, said control unit further operating to cycle the operation of the gas burner element and the electric heating element in combination at least following a preheat stage of the baking operation so as to be concurrently activated and deactivated in order to maintain the substantially constant oven cavity temperature for a desired time period.