Comments on: Chefs Speak: Who Owns a Recipe?

By: Savory Tv

Savory Tv — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 01:20:33 +0000

Thanks Chris for your very thoughtful comment. They are wise words. Somehow it’s nice to not know where an original recipe came from, because you can let your imagination run free with the possibilities of stories behind them. We do believe that recipes should be shared, although we fully respect those who choose to safeguard their gems.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:06:42 +0000

It’s important to clarify what we mean by “recipe”. If we’re just talking about ingredient lists and basic instructions such as “simmer for 20 minutes then add the herbs”, those are neither subject to copyright nor ever truly original. However most recipes contain additional writing such such as personal anecdotes which may be subject to copyright. So if we’re talking about someone copying everything including the expressive writing parts, then that is illegal. Also, copyright makes no distinction between a cookbook and a blog. In this case I think the ethics parallel the law. If the only similarity is the ingredient list, then there is no reason to give credit. I would even say it is wrong because this implies that whoever is getting credit is the original creator of that ingredient list. I know some people might want to think that but the art of cooking is hundreds of thousands of years old. Every recipe is, if not an exact copy, an adaption of a recipe that came before. Does it make sense to list hundreds of references for each written recipe? The assumption of originally seems to be even stronger for magazine and cookbook recipes. I don’t think any of my cookbooks cite the source for their recipes. Do you really think they aren’t copied or adapted from somewhere else? Of course they are. So my question is if the professional authors don’t cite sources, why should us bloggers be any different? I think the answer is that they “get it” and we don’t. Lastly, it is the additional writing, beyond the basic ingredients and methods, that provide the real value in any recipe. In this case, giving credit isn’t good enough, you would need permission, legally and ethically.

By: Ashley Morgan

Ashley Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:19:48 +0000

This is cool and I love to cook even with my mom, Cooking is something that I like to do when I am at home doing nothing at all and I sometimes see cooking shows on tv and I love what they make. Someday I going to be a good cook just like I see on tv and othere places as well.

By: Sam Sotiropoulos

Sam Sotiropoulos — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:42:19 +0000

Great video, I agree completely. Thanks for posting this!

By: Rose-Bartlett

Rose-Bartlett — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:58:45 +0000

@savorytv, @ sweetsfoods TX. Who Owns A Recipe? Chefs’ Speak Out. http://tinyurl.com/dlerkd

By: Michael Natkin

Michael Natkin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:34:13 +0000

I’m with all of you, and I make a firm practice of it on Herbivoracious.com, to give credit if anyone else has inspired a recipe, even tangentially. I’ve actually had the opposite experience of inventing a pretty cool dish, and mentioning it in email to a well known chef, only to have it appear on his blog with no attribution, before I’d even had a chance to publish it myself. That was definitely an eye opener to me.

By: Savory Tv

Savory Tv — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:40:06 +0000

@Debo Hobo, @ Jessie, @HoneyB, I think we are all on the same page here! Taking someone’s exact recipes, or images for that matter, is unethical, and it’s a bit disheveling to think that respected professionals do this at times…

@Average Betty, “Food Hacking” is a great term! Great example with the PBJ as well

@Tiffany, @Gera, it is a fine line isn’t it?

Happy Friday the 13th everyone, have a great weekend!

By: Gera @ SweetsFoods

Gera @ SweetsFoods — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:27:34 +0000

I think if you take a recipe from other site you must give the credit. The only cases should be a “copyright” are in factories/restaurant secret-recipes

Anyway, some months ago I found a food blogger that had a big problem with that… I don’t remember the name but she had to take out the recipe from her site…

Great theme and video Heidi!

By: averagebetty

averagebetty — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:25:54 +0000

Going out to a restaurant and coming home to try and recreate the dish you had is what I call “food hacking.” Similar to how a computer programer figures out how to make code work. All cooks/chefs do it… it’s because we love food. Giving credit for “inspiration” is great

I heard another take on this argument; that you can’t “own” a recipe. The value lies in the presentation of the recipe. Say for example, a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich can be made by different people the same way but how you choose to describe how to make your PBJ makes it your original recipe.

Great topic. Great video!

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:22:29 +0000

What a great interview! It’s very interesting to hear the perspective from a professional chef. Over the past few months, I have seen many bloggers write about their struggle of someone using their recipe and slightly modifying it or bloggers themselves making modifications to a recipe published in a magazine. It’s a very thin line, and I think that it was great where Andrew Carmellini left off, give credit where credit is do. It’s the honest thing to do. Thanks for the video,and keep them coming!