The glass ceramic plate for a cooking apparatus is transparent to visible light and IR radiation and has a noble metal film on its underside. The noble metal film is composed of an alloy of gold, platinum and/or palladium, which imparts a reflective property to it. It contains from 0 to 5 percent by weight, in relation to a total metal content, of silver, copper, silicon, bismuth and other metals that are not noble metals. The glass ceramic plate coated with the noble metal film has a spectral transmission of 0 to 12% in the infrared region of the spectrum. When a decoration consisting of a grid of unsymmetrically distributed elements is provided on the topside of the glass ceramic plate, defects in the glass ceramic material can be concealed. The invention also includes a method of coating.