A system for thermally reconstituting plural item meals in an oven with a cavity to which electromagnetic energy is supplied uses differently shielded or unshielded food containers to partially control the energy received by each food item from the cavity so as to place all of the items in a condition for consumption in the same controllable time interval. A template carried on a tray positions the food items relative to each other and to the cavity so as to further control the energy distribution to the food items. An electromagnetic energy sampling sensor carried on the tray automatically terminates the heating cycle. In one oven control, the sensor carried on the tray is a magnetic or ferrite mass which controls a magnetically responsive switch mounted in the oven to initiate the heating cycle and which is heated to its Curie point when the food items are properly heated to release the switch and terminate the heating cycle. The described method of preparing the plural item meal on the tray includes the steps of positioning the food items on the tray to distribute between them the energy available in the cavity, repositioning the items to compensate for changed cavity energy distribution resulting from the first positioning of the items on the tray, and positioning the sensor on the tray such that it reaches its Curie point when all of the template located food components reach a condition suitable for consumption.