Oven apparatus for efficiently cooking food

Details Oven apparatus for efficiently cooking food Oven apparatus for efficiently cooking food

2002-01-04

2004-03-16

Pelham, Joseph (Department: 3742)

Electric heating

Heating devices

With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...

C099S44300R, C198S844100, C198S853000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06707014

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an improved oven for continuously cooking food. In particular, the present oven efficiently cooks food while minimizing heat loss. Known art may be found in U.S. classes 99 and 198 and the subclasses thereunder.
2. Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, restaurants and the like use radiant or convective ovens extensively during food preparation. Ovens can be categorized as either a conveyor type that operates in a steady-state fashion or as a conventional type that operates in a batch wise fashion. Regardless of the type, both are plagued by waste heat that is usually transmitted to the surrounding atmosphere (i.e. the restaurant or other facility). It is desirable to minimize such losses.
In high volume commercial and restaurant operations, conveyor ovens have replaced more traditional baking ovens in some circumstances. A conveyor oven can significantly reduce the amount of cooking time compared to other types of ovens. Conveyor ovens also cook food in a generally healthier manner as well as requiring less training and/or experience for proper use.
Conveyor ovens typically use a stainless steel continuous conveyor belt to carry individual food items through the heated portion of an oven. These ovens have a first opening through which uncooked food enters and a second spaced apart opening on the opposite end of the oven through which cooked food exits. An endless conveyor belt passes through this cooking tunnel and extends past both openings sufficiently to allow safe insertion and retrieval of food products. The only limit to how many identical food items may be placed in the oven and cooked is the speed of the conveyor belt which correlates to the residence time to sufficiently cook the food items. This arrangement allows individual food items to be continuously placed on the conveyor belt for sequential steady state cooking. This is significantly faster than conventional ovens in which each food item must wait its turn since they are cooked batch wise.
In restaurants conducting a high volume of business, the speed of cooking provided by a conveyor oven is often quite advantageous. A conveyor oven usually reduces the preparation time for a food order, which leads to increased customer satisfaction. It may also allow a restaurant to serve a larger number of customers. When the food items offered by a restaurant are to be cooked at the same temperature for the same amount of time, a conveyor oven is particularly advantageous. The operator need only set the temperature and conveyor belt speed as necessary to cook the selected foods. Once these two parameters are set, the oven may be operated continuously without any adjustment. Even a person unskilled in the art of cooking is able to prepare high quality cooked food products simply by placing them on the conveyor belt of this type of oven. The ease of operation and high throughput of conveyor ovens makes them highly desirable in restaurants and other commercial and industrial settings.
A single food order at a restaurant may include a variety of different actual food items. Those skilled in the art of cooking will appreciate that different food items require a variety of different cooking times. However, it is desirable to serve all of the food items in a single food order at the same time. Food items that are prepared quickly may cool significantly while waiting for an accompanying food item to finish cooking. In addition, foods requiring a longer cooking time than accompanying food items may be undercooked so that the other food items are not overly cooled when served.
In an effort to combat these problems, many restaurants use heat lamps to keep food warm while waiting for accompanying food items to finish cooking. This is an imperfect solution. Some food items may remain under a heat lamp for an extended period of time. This causes some food items to dry out. Extended exposure to heat lamps also causes the plate on which the food items rest to become uncomfortably hot. It is also believed that exposure to heat lamps has a deleterious effect on both the flavor and texture of the food items. The use of heat lamps also does not guarantee that all food items will be served at the same temperature. The actual temperature of the food items will depend on how much time they have spent underneath a heat lamp.
It also is well known in the art of cooking that brick or stone ovens provide superior flavor and texture to foods. Connoisseurs of pizzas and breads, as well as fish and meats prefer the qualities that only a stone or brick oven can impart to these food products. However, stone or brick ovens are difficult to operate. Only those well skilled in the art of cooking with these types of ovens can properly bake food items evenly and without burning the food products. This means that a restaurant must pay a higher salary to employ one skilled in stone or brick oven operation. This is an economic disadvantage to a restauraunteur. Additionally, these ovens have traditionally been capable of cooking only one item at a time. This means that individual food orders require more time to prepare since they must be cooked in a batch wise fashion. The skill required by the operator and slow throughput makes these ovens more expensive to operate than conveyor ovens or other conventional ovens. While the food items have superior flavor and texture, they are more expensive and slower than both conventional and conveyor ovens. This results in a higher price for the customer. This also means that a restaurant can not accommodate as many customers and customers must wait a longer period of time for their food orders to be prepared.
In a stone or brick oven, the heat is imparted to the baked food item through the stone or brick surface on which it rests during cooking. It is believed that this heat transfer from a stone-like material to the food item is responsible for the superior flavor and texture of food items prepared in this manner.
Conveyor ovens typically use conveyor belts comprised of stainless steel rods spaced apart by linking elements to mimic the grating found on a grill. In this manner heat is applied directly to the baked food product. This is sufficient to properly cook items and also facilitates cooking methods such as “flame broiling.” However, the flavor and texture this grill-style baking imparts to food items is believed to be inferior to that of a stone or brick oven.
It is also well known in the art that food items may be cooked much more quickly when they are fried rather than baked. Unfortunately, flied foods are much less healthy than baked food products. As people and our society in general become more health conscious, there is a greater desire for healthier food items. Although baking is significantly healthier than frying food items, it is a much slower process. This makes baking food items a less desirable cooking method in restaurants having a high volume of business.
It is particularly desirable to replace deep frying in commercial and/or industrial settings where a high volume is necessary. This is especially true with the increasing popularity of pre-prepared meals that are generally prepared by a wholesaler and/or purchasing company for subsequent resale to an end-user who simply reheats the pre-cooked meal. This is thus a need to prepare large volumes of food that previously did not exist.
As mentioned previously, another serious disadvantage of many ovens is their significant output of waste heat. Particularly, when convection heating is used in a conveyor oven, much of the heated air escapes from the entrance and exit openings in the oven. This results in higher overhead costs, a less comfortable work environment for the oven operators, and greater cost in maintaining a comfortable ambient temperature throughout a restaurant.
It is thus desirable to develop a cooking method that allows a variety of food items to be served at the same time and temperature without a reduction in quality.
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