Pressureless steam cooker

Claim 1

A cooker comprising, in combination, a heating chamber, a steam-generating chamber and a cooking chamber, said steam-generating chamber comprising an integral part of the heating chamber at the bottom thereof which opens into the heating chamber, said cooking chamber being of smaller horizontal cross section and smaller vertical section than the heating chamber and supported therein against the top of the heating chamber and centered with respect to the sides such that there is a continuous, open manifold space surrounding the sides and coextensive with the bottom of the cooking chamber which is in direct communication with the steam-generating chamber for receiving steam generated in the steam-generating chamber by convection, said cooking chamber having inperforate top and bottom walls and, in two opposite side walls, vertically-spaced lines of longitudinally-spaced apertures to provide communication between the manifold space and the interior of the cooking chamber, vertically-spaced tray supports on said side walls of the cooking chamber for supporting food-supporting trays, food-supporting trays supported by said tray supports between the lines of apertures, said food-supporting trays defining mutually exclusive spaces within the cooking chamber between trays to which steam is supplied exclusively from the opposite ends through said apertures such that food supported by a tray is subjected to cooking independently of the food in an adjacent tray, heating elements supported in the steam-generating chamber and a float control valve connected to the steam-generating chamber for maintaining a body of water in the steam-generating chamber.