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Who owns that recipe?

Started by thefoodgeek · 7 months ago

In any field involving a creative endeavor, people who make things up have this dream of making money off of it. And ideas, once exposed to the world, are pretty easy to look at and recreate. Physical objects, by and large, require at least as much money to recreate as they did to make in ... Continue reading »

6 comments

  • Excellent points, and I find your views refreshing. Ideas are meant to be shared, and really, it's food people, not a top secret government patent. If I find an amazing recipe, I love sharing it, it's like giving a small gift. I have a deep respect for talented restaurant chefs that share recipes and tips, and would rather be a customer at their restaurant vs. the snobby "you'll never know" chef in the restaurant around the corner.
  • Thanks for the comment. Let's hope more and more people work their way over to this point of view.
  • I don't think restaurants are foolish for protecting their recipes. Okay, if there's a famous chef at some gourmet restaurant, then yeah I might go there just because he's good at what he does, and I might not care what recipe he uses for banana clove pudding. But otherwise I'm going to the restaurant for the recipe. I don't care who makes my Wendy's Frosty as long as they use that special recipe that makes it taste so darn good. The recipe is what matters, not the short order cook who follows it. If some other restaurant were to copy that recipe and start selling treats that taste just like a Frosty, well then suddenly I have one less reason to spend my dollars at Wendy's. Commercially, a recipe is worth protecting.
  • I dunno. If I go to a restaurant, it's because I trust the judgement of the person who buys the food and who ensures that the staff stays conscious of quality of preparation. I want quality service. I want a clean, well maintained kitchen (or at least the illusion that there is such a thing). I want consistent preparation of food. I want people who know how to season properly, and who can avoid over/under cooking food. And yes, I want the food to taste good.

    The recipe is a part of that, but I don't think it's the largest part. I think the spirit of the kitchen and the attention to detail are much more important than how much of which spice gets mixed in here and how long you bake it for. Those are important to a point, but the best recipe in the world won't help someone who can't maintain all of the other things. Someone who can do all the rest and who doesn't have a recipe can make much better food.

    As I say, to me it's about the value added.
  • I am with you all the way! Maybe we were separated at birth?!
  • This was quite interesting - you never really think about copyrights when it comes to recipes.

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