Abstract: A cooking apparatus is presented. The cooking apparatus includes multiple independently controlled food preparation zones. The cooking apparatus further includes a network interface and a scanning device integrated into the cooking apparatus and configured to read a machine-readable identifier of a meal kit. The cooking apparatus additionally includes a processor in communication with each of the food preparation zones and that independently controls a temperature and time of food preparation in each of the food preparation zones in accordance with a set of cooking instructions retrieved via the network interface using the machine-readable identifier.

Abstract: A meal kit and a method of using the meal kit are presented. The meal kit includes a liner for a network-connected cooking apparatus, the liner having multiple segmented areas, each segmented area containing a food product. The liner also includes a machine-readable code disposed on the liner that is utilized to access information relating to cooking temperature and cooking time for each segment. The liner is configured to be placed into a cooking apparatus and align with different individually controllable cooking zones in the cooking apparatus.