<p>The cooker has a control unit for activating and deactivating inductors (10a, 10b), and a switching element (68) for earthing one of the inductors. The control unit closes the switching element, and earths the inductors when the inductors are deactivated. The switching element is designed as a semiconductor switch having inverters (32a) that are connected with the inductors. The inductors are identically constructed and arranged on a two-dimensional grid. The switching element includes a transistor (64) and a diode (60) that is arranged parallel to the transistor. An independent claim is also included for a method for operating an induction cooker.</p>
