Disclosed is a cooking apparatus for providing a cooking vessel suitable for a simmer cooking function. A cooking apparatus of the present invention includes a cooking room; a cooking vessel accommodated in the cooking room, and including a main body, and a heating element attached on a bottom of the main body and configured to be heated by microwaves to heat the main body; a microwave heater configured to radiate microwaves to the cooking vessel; an input device configured to receive a simmer cooking command; and a controller configured to repeatedly perform a process of turning on the microwave heater for a first time period, when the simmer cooking command is received through the input device, and turning off the microwave heater for a second time period when the first time period elapses, for a cooking time period, and configured to perform a keeping-warm process when a door does not open in a third time period after the cooking time period elapses.