‘How can you copyright scrambled eggs?’ Recipe plagiarism troubles chefs but they lack legal redress
- What happens when a chef finds one of their recipes reproduced without their consent or passed off as someone else’s on a food blog or in a cookbook?
- Recipes are generally not protected under intellectual property laws and there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism
Pastry chef Nick Malgieri was scrolling through a food blog when he came upon a recipe for panettone, a puffy sweet bread that the author said conjured up fond memories of Christmases spent with his Italian grandmother.
But it quickly became clear that the instructions were all too familiar. “I started reading the recipe and I said, ‘This is my recipe!’” he recalls.
Malgieri’s unpleasant experience was unfortunately not a one-time thing. After decades of work and 12 published cookbooks, the American expert baker has seen his work all over the internet – reproduced without his consent on numerous sites.
Some of his recipes have even been claimed by other chefs and included in their cookbooks. In one, he says he found a copy of his “food processor puff pastry, practically word for word”.
Plagiarism has become widespread in the food world. It is difficult to curb, and even more difficult to prosecute.