THE BLOG

As a baby gastronome you can grow to be as strong as your mentor in that particular fragment of knowledge. In some cases it’s just repetitive practice leading to the development of tacit knowledge and mastery of a process. Great chefs learn the basic cooking ABCs well. In fact some never stop, I still enjoy making a crystal clear stock while observing how different qualities of chicken can change the outcome. Fine cooking is the fine art of alchemy!

How do we recognise the input from these cooking parent mentor figures? They have contributed to you by offering information with love and generosity; it’s their unique Intellectual property (IP) after all.  How much do you owe to their contributions to your talent? Great chefs have been doing this for years, some do it for love and teamwork in foods clan culture, some do it in Europe for labour, culinary training...... errrr perhaps slave labour dependant on your ethical views. In my view your own measure of your contribution to the industry depends greatly on how much credit you take and a bit of ego eccentricity.  

Are you really a culinary genius or a re-hash artist?

In my opinion recipes are secondary in today’s culinary innovation process. The reason for this is that there are only so many cooking techniques and great products one can use, the rest is probably creative spin. Some chefs browse each other’s restaurant tables for 100 bucks a sitting.  That’s cheap IP; some would call that commercial espionage. Take a walk down a food street, look at the food in the windows, pilfering the best ideas as you go own. Some owner’s poach the best staff and therefore intellectual art property to ensure they are the best in their field. Some remove IP visually and recreate their own versions from food created by fashion food mags.

This is possible today on a global stage today with all of the various internet recipe platforms available to you. I have seen many chefs in my career as a chef browsing the likes of Vouge, Taste or Delicious magazine and then claim genius to their brigade in the days ahead. Perhaps we are all just merely unconsciously inspired by another’s beautiful work, who himself was inspired by another’s work and another’s over eternity.

How much is original thought?

Does the chef claim mastery over the recipes of history or simply manual skills differ between people, for example those who can produce chocolate curls and those who can’t? No significant ground breaking process here, only patience, practice and manual dexterity.

Legal ownership of Culinary IP in the foodservice Industry.

This challenges the boundaries of the traditional employment relationships. How good are you?  What are your ideas really worth?  Do you bring in $5,000,000 in revenue for the business? Then start to think and get some IP advice.

Whose recipe is it?

Here is some interesting food for thought. It depends on how your employer has written your employment contract. Traditionally employers would probably think your creations while in their employment belong to the employer, check your contract this is pretty standard or at least assumed.

If you’re a genius chef I suggest you seek intellectual property advice and design your own contract that defines what’s yours and what you take with you when you leave, and you eventually will won’t you? You will start your own business when you extract all the knowledge you can from your supporters and mentors and set up next door or at least in the next suburb in direct or substitute product competition with him.

Intellectual property rights in the food industry certainly warrant attention and more investigation with employment or IP solicitors. Here’s a link to some comparable thoughts on this not so clear issue of ownership of IP while in employment. “WITHOUT EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS - EMPLOYERS RISK LOSING IP” this link gives interesting examples to draw from.

http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/2269/without-employment-contracts---employers-risk-losi.aspx

Chefs have the opportunity to develop a better way to work together and be recognised for their work. Relational contributions should not go unrecognised. Innovation and individual collaboration can contribute to solving the food crisis and drive new behaviours for economic development of our struggling industry.

Collaboration on a grand scale will be required for the future to address future challenges. We need to move past the grandiose, self promoting efforts of the modern day Picasso chef and look towards something new and more collaborative. Who owns the recipes? I don’t know but, professional chefs have the opportunity in the age of information technology to greatly benefit from these advances and assist global economic development and the improvement of efficient food supply chains.