Optical quality control system

An inspection system for providing a cooking cycle/program for food to be cooked in a cooking device, the cooking device including a cooking chamber having a plurality of vertically spaced-apart levels therein for placing food to be cooked, the inspection system comprising:

• a distance sensor;
• a digital optical recognition device;
• a controller having an associated memory;
• a plurality of cooking cycles/programs for each food to be cooked, wherein each of the plurality of cooking cycles/programs includes a plurality of cooking parameters selected from at least one of cooking time, cooking temperature, cooking with hot air, cooking with steam, or cooking with superheated steam, and wherein each of the plurality of cooking cycles/programs also includes each of the plurality of vertically spaced-apart levels as a cooking parameter;
• and
• images of food to be cooked stored in the associated memory,
• wherein the distance sensor detects the vertically spaced-apart level where the food to be cooked is to be placed in the cooking chamber and stores the vertically-spaced apart cooking level in the associated memory,
• wherein the digital optical recognition device captures images of the food to be cooked and stores the captured images in the associated memory,
• wherein the controller accesses the captured images and stored images stored in the memory and compares the captured images to the stored images of food to be cooked,
• wherein the controller identifies the food to be cooked based upon the comparison, and
• wherein, based upon the stored vertically spaced-apart level and the identification of the food to be cooked, the controller selects a cooking cycle/program for the food to be cooked.