Heating assembly for cooking appliance

A method of assembling a cooking appliance, the method comprising:

• providing a chassis that defines at least one cooking cavity for receiving food therein, wherein the chassis includes a top wall, a bottom wall, and at least one side wall,
• inserting at least one heating assembly at least partially within the chassis, wherein the at least one heating assembly includes a support and a heating element attached to the support, and wherein prior to inserting the at least one heating assembly the support is substantially flat;
• and
• forming the at least one heating assembly into a curved shape within the chassis by elastically bending at least a portion of the at least one heating assembly, wherein a concave side of the heating element faces towards the at least one cooking cavity.

A cooking appliance comprising:

• a housing defining a cooking cavity for receiving food therein;
• and
• a heating assembly arranged to provide infrared radiation into the cooking cavity, wherein the heating assembly comprises:
• a support having a curved shape with a concave side facing toward the cooking cavity;
• and
• an electrical resistance heating element coupled to the support and exposed to the cooking cavity,
• wherein the support is configured to have a planar shape when in an unstressed state and to be elastically bent to have the curved shape when in a stressed state, the support being mounted in the cooking appliance and held in the stressed state such that the support maintains its curved shape with the concave side facing towards the cooking cavity with thermal expansion and thermal contraction of the support.