The invention refers to a control device (10) for a cooking appliance (1). The cooking appliance (1) includes a cooking chamber (2) used for heating a heating member (3) and a control device (10) and is designed to receive at least one predetermined food or a plurality of ingredients of a predetermined recipe. The control device (10) includes a control unit (13) arranged to determine at least one combination of predetermined cooking parameters as a function at least of the specific surface area of the at least one unitary element of the at least one predetermined food or the at least one ingredient of the plurality of ingredients of the predetermined recipe inserted into the cooking chamber (2) of the cooking appliance (1), the specific surface area being estimated from descriptive parameters of the at least one unitary element of the predetermined food or the at least one ingredient from among the plurality of ingredients of the predetermined recipe.