Self-cleaning convection oven

Abstract

A self-cleaning continuous cooking oven is provided which is capable of rapidly cooking different foodstuffs with a recirculated hot air. The oven has a cabinet defining said oven cavity, an inlet chute for food portions to be cooked, and an outlet chute for cooked food portions. These chutes may be sealed during an oven cleaning cycle. Within the cavity there is a rotatable cooking chamber including a cylindrical wall having a longitudinal axis and having an inlet end and an outlet end. A conveying member extends along and projects inward from the interior of the cylindrical wall defining a food carrying passage extending to the outlet end of said cooking chamber, and food passed into the inlet chute progresses through the chamber and exits via the outlet chute means rotatably supporting said cooking chamber in said oven cavity with said inlet end adjacent said inlet chute and said outlet end discharging to said outlet chute. A recirculating blower and a heater supplies a forced flow of heated air into said cooking chamber and onto food portions therein, and a drive rotates the cooking chamber at a predetermined speed. A cycle control operates the oven in cooking and self-cleaning modes. In the self-cleaning mode the heater is operated at a temperature sufficiently high to assure pyrolytic cleaning of soil from interior exposed parts of the oven cavity and the cooking chamber, and also actuates the drive for the cooking chamber during a cleaning mode.