On Recipe Authorship

Recently, a visitor to my site wrote to me accusing me of plagiarism. She provided a link to another Russian-language cooking website, claiming that I had taken several recipes from it. The supposedly copied recipes turned out to be – tiramisu, crème brûlée, and cranberry mousse. All of them, by the way, have different proportions and my own personal presentation, but that's beside the point. I found it rather surprising and amusing. Since this isn't the first time something like this has happened, I've come to suspect that many people don't really understand what plagiarism in recipes means or how copyright applies here. As the saying goes, «they've heard the bells but don't know where they ring.» This article is dedicated to explaining these simple facts.

I want to say that all the fundamental techniques for making sponge cakes, pies, muffins, desserts, and the like were invented long before any of us came along. They are all found in cookbooks from various countries and existed long before the internet or computers were ever a thing. It's just that everyone who cooks presents their own vision of a specific recipe with small variations — whether it's borscht, a muffin, a dessert, or anything else.

For example, I have a tiramisu recipe, and so does that other site. So what? Tiramisu was invented in Italy more than fifty years ago, possibly even longer, and today its classic version is made in roughly the same way both in Italy and in Russia. So am I not allowed to make tiramisu just because it already appears on another Russian-language site? Maybe all Italians should be banned from making it too? The recipe is essentially the same — even on the package of mascarpone cheese I brought back from Italy, there's basically the same recipe (differing only in the amount of sugar and eggs). Both that site's author and I took our recipe from the Italians, so kudos to them.
Moving on — crème brûlée. This dessert originates from France; it's a classic recipe that appears in many books and on French cooking websites. Again, thank you to the French for this wonderfully delicate, melt-in-your-mouth treat.
Cranberry mousse? This mousse recipe is at least 50 years old — our grandmothers made it back in the Soviet era as a way to sneak that dreaded semolina into their kids' food. We learned it from them, so thank you to our grandmothers and mothers.
The same holds true, in principle, for virtually every recipe. That's why, if you browse various cooking websites, you'll find that similar recipes appear on all of them.

Believe me, the world is much wider and more diverse than it might seem at first glance. Millions of people around the world cook every day from roughly the same, relatively short, list of ingredients. So in different countries, or in different corners of the same country, different people independently come up with similar ideas when making, say, a specific apple pie. And trust me, even if someone genuinely thinks they invented a recipe variation themselves, someone in the world has already made it exactly that way 100% of the time (if only because their grandmother used to make it like that). That is precisely why there is no such thing as a patent on recipes, and plagiarism in recipes does not exist. If it were plagiarism, then every one of us who makes a big bowl of Olivier salad for New Year's Eve should feel like a bad person — after all, we're committing plagiarism, since someone has already made it before. And we'd also have to pay royalties every time to whoever invented Olivier salad, herring under a fur coat, crab stick salad, and so on.

Now, pay attention!!! So what exactly is plagiarism, and what does authorship of recipes mean? Authorship of recipes lies not in the recipe itself, but in the specific photographs and text. You cannot take someone else's photos and recipe text and pass them off as your own. That is plain-and-simple theft and a lack of respect for someone else's work. You first need to ask the rights holder whether they mind you posting their work somewhere, with a link back to them. Or, if the rights holder's website states that their content may be used freely, you may post their work elsewhere but must always credit the author with a link. So, to repeat: it is the specific photos and recipe text that are protected by authorship — not the recipe itself!

In other words, broadly speaking, you are free to make absolutely any recipe from my site. You can take your own photos of the dishes, write your own text, and post it all wherever you please. A link back to my site is not required at all (although, if you really want to include one, feel free — I'd be flattered).

Honestly, it's laughable — how can such simple, obvious truths be unclear to anyone? Why confuse the sacred with the profane?
Author: Elena Kamenskikh