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2002
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- WHO OWNS THE
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Chefs have been very liberal over the years when it comes to sharing information and recipes, but there is a limit. There is an increasing push from centralised companies to publish all kitchen recipes to one and all. A number of chefs have phoned me and asked an opinion on the matter. The long and short of it is they don't believe they should have to give their recipes to any one and in some respects that is a fair call.
The normal process over the years has been that you work for the chef and learn his skills, then you are able to use them yourself at a later date or you develop professional friendships and , or you compete with other chefs and learn from demos and competitions. You just don't give them away. I do not think that this method of learning and development is such a bad way to go - it has worked fairly successfully for a good number of years.
There is another side of the coin and that is if a company is paying you to create a menu then it is up to them to do what they please with that recipe and menu. A fair call also. But when are we given time to set aside a couple of weeks to create these new dishes for the restaurants to sell? Rarely if ever, we are expected to just come in a produce what we know for them to sell.
Which leads me to the next point. If we work on the theory that the business owns the recipes, that we are cooking on their premises, and we have produced recipes at restaurant one, then go and work for another restaurant down the track, are we allowed to do our tried and true recipes there or do they belong to restaurant one?
If they belong to restaurant one then how can a company post corporate recipes because they will already belong to someone else? Let's face it, if you create two signature dishes in your life that have never been done before anywhere, then you are doing very well. If the dish has been done before, it doesn't belong to you or the restaurant, so why worry about publishing it?
Well, I would worry because if I have taken the time to learn specific techniques to make me a more competent tradesman, than Freddo from HO-NA-DADDA, then that is what the restaurant is paying me to do. Then again why worry, because if they publish the recipe not everyone has the same skill set and probably won't be able to reproduce a complex dish. Why publish something that could potentially lead to a disaster, because some well meaning chef has read the recipe but does not realize that they do not have the skills required to complete the dish and you end up with several complaints.
Given the nature of the beast, what's to say that if we are forced to submit all recipes, that we do not leave some small but vital ingredient out so we still retain some edge on our fellow chef. Why do that though? Assuming that the next chef reading the menu probably has the same amount of skills as you, cooks the dish and then says it tastes pretty ordinary I might trick it up. Then, when they find out it was your dish, wonders why you did not pick up on the much-needed ingredient.
Now that I have totally confused myself with the whole process, I will leave it to you guys and girls to tell me which way we should go?
Please write in and let me know.
NZ
Chefs Association Inc