If I bring a recipe from home and use it in the cafe I work at is it then considered their recipe?

piepie1 asked:


I bring recipes from home that I look up on the computer and try them out at a cafe I work at. I spend lots of time on the computer doing this! Due to my hours being cut, I have been looking into other job interests thus have taken my recipes back, and am now accused of stealing my own recipes, that belong to that cafe??? I am confused!!!!! Please give me some advice!

hull City Chat

7 Responses to “If I bring a recipe from home and use it in the cafe I work at is it then considered their recipe?”

  1. Patricia L Says:

    I would think that if they have been using them, they probably have the right to keep them. Next time you do this, have it in writing that if you leave the recipes go with you.

  2. beancraft Says:

    As you prepared the recipes, even though they were your own, you prepared them in their work time and legally anything you do with them which is not created as your own on a signed document, then they have every right to use those recipes for their business. Look through their eyes, if you were in the same situation and you were the boss, what would you do, knowing your staff are there to help your business and you pay the rightfully to do so, but its in your business time and you have every right to request and use those recipes if you haven’t signed a legal document stating that it was originally their recipe. It’s hard luck, I know, but that’s the way businesses operate. Cheers

  3. DAS Says:

    I think once you bring those recipes and use them at the restaurant, it is probably considered a part of them, and their property. You can’t get around that, unless you want some legal compensation or something, you could check with an attorney. But if I were you, I would just leave it alone and not take anymore recipes to work, and don’t touch the ones that you’ve already given them. You don’t want to cause more problems and misunderstandings.

    It’s like buying a gift for a girlfriend, then you find out that she’s not what you want, and you ask or take the gift back. That being and Indian giver. Chock it off, let it go.

    Would you have ask or taken your recipes back if your hours weren’t cut? Nothing wrong with looking for another job, especially since your hours have been cut, But anything you’ve used or given them during the course of time that you’ve worked there now belongs to them.

  4. People A Says:

    If you got them off the internet, they might not be yours or the cafe’s if they are from a book or internet website that was copyrighted. If you collect recipes off the internet, you should have saved the recipes on a burned CD disc and a link list of the recipe websites on CD burned. Organize them by category and/or by ingredient. It is too many hours spent to just print them and that be the only copy.

  5. chris m Says:

    at every restaurant ive ever worked at, i take the recipes because they might come in handy in the future. Guys i know do it all the time, from line cooks, to sous chefs, to chefs. screw that cafe, keep it movin. but before you leave take pictures of the recipes that are interesting to you

  6. TX2step Says:

    They aren’t YOUR recipes! You just admitted that you got them off the internet from someone else! It would be different if you have devised the recipes from scratch, in your head, instead of just copying them off the internet….

  7. schshe Says:

    In all of reality they are not your recipes. You got them off the Internet. Anybody can do this.They really do not belong to you or the restaurant.They are on the Internet for anyone to use. The unfortunate thing is you put all the wok into getting them,that I feel bad about.Chalk it up to experience and learn from it. I know its not easy or fair.

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