Sharing Recipes with Competitors: Is it Right?

[Akos]

Hello hello hello. Is it right to give your recipes to a *competitive* baker?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello hello hello. Is it right to give your recipes to a *competitive* baker?

Hello Akos

Personally I have no issues sharing my recipes.

There are few original recipes. The vast majority of recipes any one baker uses were obtained by someone else. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a recipe posted on a site that I recognize from another source. For example on Cake Central a user by the screenname tripletsmom posted a chocolate layer cake recipe in 2010 that she claims as hers. But it is in fact an exact copy of a chocolate cake recipe published by Gourmet Magazine in March 1999.

In 2003 I took a baking class in Washington DC. The chef instructor handed out two cake recipes— both of which I recognized as being ripped off from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s 1988 cookbook The Cake Bible.

Celebrity chef Ina Garten’s Beatty Chocolate Cake is almost identical to the Hersheys chocolate cake recipe. The only difference is Garten redistributed the amounts of leavening by 1/2 teaspoon and uses buttermilk instead of regular milk. But all the other ingredients remain the same.

Since everyone uses recipes from other sources, and cake (and all other baked goods) as we know it today has been around for more than 100 years, it begs the question: how does one lay claim to something they didn’t invent?

In the United States a recipe cannot be copyright protected. Copyright law in the United States explicitly states:

“In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.”

Since recipes are nothing more than a list of ingredients and procedure, recipes cannot be copyrighted. And that is a logical position. There’s nothing original or unique about creaming butter and sugar.

Every year some of the most famous bakers in the world distribute their recipes in cookbooks. They provide recipes for magazines and newspapers. They demonstrate their recipes on cooking shows. Why do they do they share their recipes? Because at the end of the day a cookie is a cookie. Cake is cake. Pie is pie. A Croissant is a croissant. A muffin is a muffin. There’s really nothing new or unique about any of these baked goods. You bake chocolate cake in Ghana. I bake chocolate cake in California. But you and I use the same ingredients in nearly the exact ratios because chocolate is chocolate cake. We are sisters in this worldwide family of bakers. As bakers we carry-on the baking traditions of those who came before us. In the sharing of recipes, our love of this craft gets carried on through some of our family and friends.

 

[Akos]

Hello @Norcalbaker59. Trust you're well. I really do understand you completely, that "There are few original recipes. The vast majority of recipes any one baker uses were obtained by someone else."

In fact I do take some recipes from the internet and sometimes make some changes as well.

Maybe, I didn't explain myself well. I was talking about a competitor who lives on my block, where we serve the same community. Do I have to give her my researched online and altered recipes?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello @Norcalbaker59. Trust you're well. I really do understand you completely, that "There are few original recipes. The vast majority of recipes any one baker uses were obtained by someone else."

In fact I do take some recipes from the internet and sometimes make some changes as well.

Maybe, I didn't explain myself well. I was talking about a competitor who lives on my block, where we serve the same community. Do I have to give her my researched online and altered recipes?

@Akos, no...when a professional baker is operating in your same neighborhood, they need to get their own recipes.


Professionals not in direct competition do share recipes and tips. There’s a ton of cottage industry cake bakers who have blogs and YouTube channels where they share their recipes, techniques, and tips. And it’s not uncommon for a cookbook author to include a recipe or two in a cookbook that they got from another baker. But when the baker is that close, competing for the same customers, its not professional of them to ask for recipes.

A few cake blogs run by professional baker’s that provide really good information on cakes.

https://mcgreevycakes.com/

https://www.craftybaking.com/howto

https://thecakeblog.com/

http://artisancakecompany.com/

https://sweetnessandbite.com/

 

[Akos]

Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate.

Thanks too for the websites included.