Abstract: A cooking basket for use in upwardly open cooking chamber adapted to receive a heat transfer fluid with heater means to selectively heat the heat transfer fluid where the basket is generally cylindrical in shape and adapted to be selectively disposed within the chamber with its longitudinal axis generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the chamber where the basket is defined by first and second generally porous sidewalls with a mean diameter less than the mean diameter of the chamber, hinge means joining one edge of each of the first and second side wall means so the free ends of the first and second sidewalls can be closed to form the basket and opened about the hinge means to provide access to the chamber defined by the first and second sidewalls and wherein each wall section includes shelf means disposed therein extending transversely from the respective sidewall means so that when the sidewall means are closed the shelf means of the first and second sidewall means are mutually disposed in interleavi