Can you really own a recipe?

In October we reported on the alleged cookbook plagiarism by Elizabeth Haigh that resulted in the publisher pulling Haigh’s book from distribution. (We also shared how to support Sharon Wee, one of the authors whose work was copied.) What is most surprising about this episode isn’t the plagiarism itself – it has happened many times in cookbook publishing – but that the book was pulled because of it.

The New York Times takes a close look at the cookbook copyright conundrum, which has long been a thorn in cookbook authors’ sides. Legal precedent in the U.S. holds that recipes and instructions are not covered by copyright law, although text in headnotes and other prose that might be found in cookbooks is subject to protection, as is the design and photography.

According to one legal expert the NYT consulted, if a recipe’s instructions “are written with enough literary flourish” they might be considered creative enough to be copyrighted. Some of my favorite authors would fall into this category – no one writes a recipe quite the same way as Nigella Lawson, for instance – but most cookbook authors have fairly prosaic instructions that wouldn’t pass muster as being “creative” under U.S. law. With the number of cookbooks that are published each year continuing to grow, it is likely that more recipes will be lifted from authors.

If I get a whiff that someone has taken another’s work and passed it off as their own, I am not interested in the book. I value originality but not just in the list of ingredients or methods – after all, there are only so many ways to write a chocolate chip cookie recipe – but rather in the stories the authors tell. That’s why most of my favorite cookbooks are more than just collections of recipes, and also why Elizabeth Haigh’s book is such a disappointment. Not only did she use the recipes of others, she stole their voice as well.