an imprinting press and cooking apparatus for a dough product includes an imprinting station with respective opposed lower press and upper imprinting plates and rotating plate or endless belt conveyors adjacent the imprinting station for moving the dough product which has been pressed and imprinted through a cooking or baking phase . heat sources are disposed adjacent the imprinting station and the conveyors for preheating the dough product for release from the printing station and for cooking the dough product , respectively . a pressure air slide is disposed between conveyor stages for transferring the dough product from one conveyor stage to another . pressure air is supplied to the air slide through a conduit and into a chamber for flow through a perforated plate which supports the dough product for movement along the slide .