Abstract: A shaped cooking vessel for preparing food; particularly oysters. The shaped cooking vessel is formed from a planar base and a lateral wall of uniform thickness; the planar base and the lateral wall preferably being in the general shape of an oyster shell. The planar base provides a flat surface for evenly heating food and for balancing the shaped cooking vessel as to prevent rolling. The lateral wall provides a sufficient depth as to retain both solid and liquid food stuffs. A plurality of ridges integrated into the lateral wall provides an increased surface area in order to increase the heat transfer from the lateral wall to the food to be prepared, which in turn decreases cooking time of said food. The shaped cooking vessel can be nestled between a preceding cooking vessel and a subsequent cooking vessel in order to reduce storage space.