A toaster for heating a food stuff to a selected shade, includes a housing having at least one wall, at least one heating chamber within the housing for receiving the food stuff to be heated and at least one heating element for heating the food stuff in the heating chamber. A window is provided in the wall and a control knob is provided for controlling the time period that the food stuff is heated. The control knob is rotatable between a first end position at which the food stuff is heated for a short time period to provide a light food stuff shade, a second end position at which the food stuff is heated for a long time period to provide a dark food stuff shade and a plurality of intermediary positions between the first and second end positions it which the food stuff is heated for a selected time period between the short and long time periods to provide a food stuff shade between light and dark. A visual shade scale includes shades ranging from a light shade at a first end of the scale to a dark shade at a second end of the scale with increasingly darker shades when moving from the first end to the second end of the scale. The shade scale is movable with respect to the window by rotation of the control knob so that the shade of the scale which is aligned for display through the window corresponds to the expected food stuff shade after heating the food stuff for the selected time period.