20090007800 | Rotisserie - A rotisserie cooking apparatus has at least one cooking rod for holding food to be cooked. Each rod has at each end a guide element, which is preferably in the form of a wheel or geared wheel. A frame of the apparatus supports an inclined guide path at either lateral side thereof for receiving the guide elements for each rod and guiding the rod gravitationally from an entry point downward towards an exit point of the guide path. The guide element and guide path are structured to cause an axial rotation of the rod as it travels down the guide path, preferably by way of gear rack in the guide path that corresponds to the gear teeth of the guide element wheel. The speed of the rod down the incline path is controlled, preferably by way of a tension or friction force against a later wall of the guide path. A preferable structure provides for a tension element at the end of the rod, which is axially adjustable to provide for differing frictional forces against the lateral wall. The apparatus may additionally have a rod loading arrangement for automatically transferring rods onto the guide path, which rod loading arrangement has a storage rack for holding a plurality of horizontally oriented rods vertically spaced-apart from each other at rod storage locations. At least one vertically oriented continuous belt loop is rotatable about a lower and an upper pulley means, the belt loop having a plurality of spaced-apart lifting fingers projecting outwardly and perpendicularly from the belt loop for lifting rods from the rod storage locations and transporting them to the guide path. The belt loop is located such that rods lifted from the storage rack and carried upwards by the lifting fingers, up to and around the upper pulley, are deposited onto the guide path at the entry point thereof. | 01-08-2009 |