Cooking apparatus operated by a single operational key that automatically sets a most suitable cooking mode

摘要

A cooking apparatus for heating food to be served and capable of being operated with utmost simplicity without using and choosing various cooking-mode selection keys so as to achieve superb ease-of-operation. The cooking apparatus includes a cooking chamber for placing and storing food to be heated by the apparatus and a detector for detecting a state of a door attached to the cooking chamber, the door being freely openable and closable against an opening portion of the cooking chamber. An optical sensor, having a plurality of light emitting portions is disposed in a side of the cooking chamber and a plurality of light receiving portions are disposed counter to the light emitting portions. A drive unit is provided for driving the optical sensor and a judgement unit verifies and determines a cooking mode suitable for the food placed in the cooking chamber responsive to a signal from the optical sensor, where the drive unit is activated when the detector detects that the door is closed.