The construction and the evaluation of the cooking process of a solar oven prototype are presented, the optogeometrical design of this oven was optimized for the intertropical zone. The cooking tests demonstrated that the oven prototype, which needs only four simple movements throughout the year, is suitable to cook three basic Mexican meals: beans, nixtamal, and corncobs. The potential quantity of wood savings per year if this oven would be used to cook meals in a rural zone of Mexico is estimated. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.