METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTELLIGENT COOKING PROCESS

A method and apparatus for controlling a cooking apparatus operates a plurality of cooking energy sources with a control including switches that reduce the input manipulations required by a user in order to operate one or more of the cooking energy sources to complete a cooking operation. The control responds to a first selection of a particular food type from a predetermined catalog of food category listings, responds to a second selection for selling a time duration corresponding to an instructional cooking period or recipe, and operates in response to the first and second selectors for generating operating parameters for at least one first cooking source for a predetermined time and for at least one second cooking source for a second predetermined time over a time period of less than and bearing a predetermined relationship to the instructional cooking period. The cooking temperature, the particular sources actuated, the duration during which each selected source operates and the power level at which the operations occur are selected automatically to perform in a predetermined process that completes a cooking process in response to the first and second selections.