Cooking appliance

#The present invention relates to cooking appliances. More particularly, though not exclusively, the invention relates to a pasta maker/deep fryer/boiler, having a basket to contain pasta, potato chips or other food, which basket can be automatically lowered into heated water or cooking oil and raised therefrom when needed.

#The usual method of cooking pasta is to immerse the pasta in boiling water and then drain the pasta, once cooked, through a separate colander. Rice can be cooked in a similar way. To deep-fry potato chips, the raw potato pieces are placed in a basket and then immersed in heated cooking oil. Once cooking is completed, the basket is raised manually from the cooking oil and suspended for a while or shaken to remove excess oil from the cooked chips.

#Sometimes, it might be desirable to lift the food from the boiling water or cooking oil during the cooking process, say for example to see if the food is sufficiently cooked, or in the case of deep-fried chips, to enable the cooking oil to return to a high temperature after water released from the potatos is boiled off as steam and cools the oil to below ideal frying temperature.

#A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of a food cooking appliance having it's food suspension basket positioned above liquid in it's vessel,

#FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of the food cooking appliance of FIG. 1 with the food suspension basket immersed in the liquid,

#In FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings are there is schematically depicted a cooking appliances 10. The appliance 10 includes a base 11 supporting a vessel 12. The base 11 might be formed of plastics, ceramic or metallic material for example, whereas the vessel 12 might be formed of aluminium, stainless steel, ceramic or other heat-resistant waterproof material. Covering the vessel 12 is a lid 14 that would typically be formed of glass, polycarbonate or other heat resistant material that is preferably see-through or transparent.

#Preferably, the vessel 12 includes a narrow bottom portion and a wider top portion as shown in the drawings. At the centre of the vessel 12, there is provided a tube 26 through which a non-threaded portion of a screw threaded shaft 17 extends vertically. Supported by the shaft 17 is a perforated basket 13, typically formed of fine stainless steel mesh. Alternatively, the basket could be formed of stainless steel sheet or other suitable material having fine holes drilled, pressed or otherwise formed therethrough.

#The basket 13 includes a central hollow portion or tube 29 having a nut 18 a fixed internally. The internal thread of the nut 18 engages with the threaded portion of the shaft 17.