Method for cooking food, to be performed in an oven with a cooking cavity, a core-temperature proble capable of being introduced in a food item placed in the cooking cavity and provided with a temperature sensor for the food temperature and a sensor for detecting the temperature within the oven cavity, wherein these sensors are adapted to generate and output respective signals, control means being provided, which are adapted to receive and process such signals issued by said temperature sensors and to supply corresponding operating commands to heating means associated to the oven; there are provided setting means adapted to define a selectively modifiable value of a final reference temperature. After an initial heating period and a subsequent cooling-down step, during which the temperature inside the oven cavity anyhow remains at a higher value than said final reference temperature, said control means, on the basis of the signals received from said sensors, start and run an operating phase in such manner as to enable a temperature to be obtained and persistingly ensured within the oven cavity, whose difference as compared with said final reference temperature is a function of the difference between said final reference temperature and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor at the core of the food.