Method and apparatus for driving an electric heater of a cooking appliance

The invention relates to a method for driving a heater (12) of a cooking device, in which the temperature of a hotplate (10) and / or a cooking utensil (22) is detected and variations in the temperature are determined, and wherein the predetermined inside a case of a variation degree of the temperature fluctuation width (.DELTA.T), a control mode is activated, wherein the temperature is kept substantially constant. The invention further relates to a method for driving a heater (12) of a cooking device, in which the temperature of a hotplate (10) and / or a cooking utensil (22) and variations in temperature from values ​​for a duty cycle and / or for a power supply for the heating means (12) are estimated and in which, when a variation degree of the temperature within a predeterminable fluctuation width (.DELTA.T), a control mode is activated, wherein the temperature is kept substantially constant within a predetermined range. Moreover, the invention relates to a control apparatus for performing the method of driving the heating device (12).