Abstract: Disclosed is a method of at least partially cooking food items by exposing them to a heated liquid cooking medium supplied by a cooking medium delivery pump and piping to a cooking zone of a cooker including a control unit which, during a cooking process; (a) controls the temperature of the cooking medium delivered to the cooking zone to a pre-determined setpoint specific for the food items by controlling heat output from a heat exchanger for heating cooking medium throughout the cooking process; (b) controls the rate of convective heat transfer to the food items by directly controlling a sensed condition of cooking medium delivered to the cooking zone, other than temperature which is controlled in step (a), related to the rate of convective heat transfer; and, optionally, (c) controls the rate of convective heat transfer to the food items by controlling a sensed condition of the cooking zone related to the rate of convective heat transfer. Cookers which implement the method are also described.

Abstract: A cooking apparatus (10) comprising a cooking chamber with a conveyor (52) wholly contained therein wherein food (46) is cooked by sprays (22) of the cooking medium.

Abstract: Disclosed is a cooking apparatus (10) having a housing (12)containing a cooking chamber (14) into which cooking medium is sprayable by spray means (16) to cook food items in the cooking chamber (14). The apparatus (10) stores cooking medium in a buffer tank (18) from which it is circulated by circulation means (20,42) to the spray means (16). Heating of the cooking medium occurs by operating at least one flow heater (22) located in the circulation means (20,42) between the buffer tank (18) and the spray means (16). If desired, a plurality of flow heaters (22) can be used and an additional preheater (48) may also be operated to assist in heating the cooking medium at start-up.