Abstract: Cooking apparatus having an upper cooking platen mounted on a support arm for swinging movement between a lower cook position and a raised position. The upper platen is mounted on the support arm for limited floating movement and upper platen adjusting mechanism is provided which engages the lower platen at a plurality of spaced points and which is adjusted by a single manually operated control. Upper platen lift assist mechanism has pressurized gas cylinders arranged so that the gas cylinders do not exert substantial upward or downward force on the upper platen arm when the upper platen is in a cook position, and assist raising the upper platen when the platen support arm is lifted out of the cook position.