February 2009

Welcome to the 4th installment of my 8-part mini-series, 8 Truths Rachel Ray Hopes You Never Find Out About Writing a Cookbook. Let’s dive right into today’s Truth, shall we?

Truth 4: It’s nearly impossible to verify where a particular recipe originated, even those handed down from my mother or grandmother, and I may get sued for using a recipe that belongs to someone else. This is a commonly held fallacy of many first time cookbook authors. Ask any chef and they are likely to agree that there are no original recipes out there.

While I do agree that it is hard to verify where a particular recipe came from, even those handed down from your dear old granny, verification is not as important when writing your cookbook as you might think.

Let’s look at U.S. Copyright Law for a clearer explanation.

I think two caveats are in order here. First, if you live outside the United States, consult your own country’s copyright laws for clarification. Second, I am not an attorney – don’t even play one on TV – so I’m not offering legal advice. When in doubt, consult a professional. Use your own common sense here.

So, let’s look at what the U.S. Copyright Law says.

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

Protection under the copyright law (title 17 of the United States Code, section 102) extends only to “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form (a copy). “Original” means merely that the author produced the work by his own intellectual effort, as distinguished from copying an existing work. Copyright protection may extend to a description, explanation, or illustration, assuming that the requirements of the copyright law are met.

You can read it for yourself here.

The “literary expression” that they are referring to is the directions accompanying a recipe. You cannot copy these. You must write the directions in your own word to have an original recipe. And, as J. Kevin Wolfe points out in his book, You Can Write a Cookbook,

For legal purposes, publishers will tell you, if three measurements are changed from the original, the recipe is considered new.

In other words, you can use the list of ingredients from someone else’s recipe, but you must change the directions or some of the ingredients.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Truth 5.

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