An apparatus (1) for cooking food products (14) comprises a first heating plate (4) adapted to support the food products; a second heating plate (10) adapted to face the food products during a cooking operation; a first resistive heating element (26) associated with the first heating plate and adapted to generate infrared radiation for heating the food products during the cooking operation; a second resistive heating element (28) associated with the second heating plate and adapted to generate infrared radiation for heating the food products during the cooking operation, and at least one microwave generator element (30) configured to selectively generate microwave radiation for heating the food products during the cooking operation; wherein at least one among the first heating plate and the second heating plate is made of a material that is transparent or at least partially transparent to microwave radiations and at the same time not transparent to infrared radiation, so as to be adapted to increase its temperature by infrared radiation absorption to provide heat to the food products by heat conduction.