Food frenzy, or how Cook's Illustrated shows their ass to the cooks of America

[anahata56]

Those of you who frequent cooking blogs know that it is commonplace, and polite, for a blogger to indicate an inspirational source for all recipes save an original. No matter how many ingredients are changed out, or what was done differently from the original recipe, a blogger will credit a source recipe as the inspiration for the new one

Comments

[bkwrrm_tx]

Oh good lord. I *like* ATK, and enjoy watching it on Saturday morning, as I do get some interesting ideas, but this is ridiculous.

Sorry - now I'm really tempted to post as many of their recipes as I can find.

[anahata56]

That was my first response, actually....

But with ONE ingredient changed!

[bkwrrm_tx]

Yes. And 'inspired by Americas Test Kitchenette' in big letters underneath.

But I'm mean like that.

I just saw your temperature guage - you're at 72 degrees?!? I'm coming to visit you. Our high the next few days (and today) - 103+.

[anahata56]

72 at this time of night is kind of uncomfortable, actually, especially since a tad sticky on top of it, which makes it feel warmer...

And especially since we got kinda used to nighttime temperatures in the 50's the last couple of nights.

But yeah--103 would have me banging my head.

"America's Test Kitchenette" brings up mental images of pink tile and checkerboard linoleum floors--I'm sure they'd be thrilled!

[jaxomsride]

But has the American Test Kitchen created the recipe de novo or have they gotten their source from somewhere else?

welcome to the knotty world of "transformative works"

[anahata56]

Well, they often solicit recipes, both from professionals and, as in the case of the blogger who submitted her mother's recipe for cheese puff, from their readers. BUT, you see, they send the recipes through their "test kitchen" and improve them.

And then they SELL them to their paying customers.

In other words, by monkeying with those recipes, they do precisely what they have forbidden anyone who would cite a CI recipe as an inspiration would do.

I've got to tell you, if anyone solicited a family recipe from me, and screwed around with it in any significant way, I would consider that recipe no longer mine, because it's not as originally submitted. However, I wouldn't turn down a citation as an inspiration for a new recipe, or demand that the recipe be taken out of public circulation because it's no longer "true" to the source.

I'd just be happy that someone was interested enough to TRY it.

[jaxomsride]

Ah but you are not looking to make money out of it.
If it is a readers or chef's recipe surely they don't "own" it anyway or is that part of the small print in submission guidelines. (What's yours is mine and what's mine's my own!)

[noelleleithe]

Has anyone other than this one Deborah person commented anywhere? I ask because it looks like it's one clueless person doing the damage here, rather than the entire organization. I'm reluctant to paint the whole company with the same brush without confirmation that this is actually their (extremely misguided and legally unsound) policy and not just one person being stupid.

[anahata56]

The thing is that this story broke five days ago, and it's been buzzing among food bloggers all that time. Surely the company must know that this is going on.

But they haven't released a statement, an apology, or any word at all as to their response to this mess.

If this PR person were some kind of corporate loose cannon, or if she didn't truly represent the intent and the position of the company, surely someone, somewhere, would have said something by now, and this woman would have been summarily canned.

Because of the policies of theirs that have been in place all along (one must pay a subscription fee in order to even access their recipes online being a glaring case in point), it has appeared all along that their attitudes about sharing their recipes with the common household cook has been a bit different from those of Epicurious, the Food Network, Martha Stewart, Allrecipes.com and any number of other recipe sources. The difference being that they are extremely covert and exist solely as a commercial interest

[moropus]

I don't think I've ever cooked anything the same way twice.

[moropus]

Didn't mean to send. With all the free knowledge on the internet, I don't usually pay for information, and I don't care what people do with my recipes. They aren't 'mine' in the truest sense.

[anahata56]

I don't pay for recipes, either. I don't even own that many cookbooks.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not grateful to those people who share their recipes, and that doesn't mean I'll diss them if I play with what they did and screw it up.

It's amazing to me how passionately people are responding to this--I know that some people look at me and think I'm nuts for caring so much about this. But I think that a lot of people feel like their fundamental ethic is being undermined, as well as their whole worldview.

It really is that important, to those of us who do it.

[anahata56]

Exactly. I don't think that anyone who has even a marginal level of comfort with food preparation ever has, actually.

Which is why it's so incredibly stupid for anyone who actually publishes recipes to expect any real cook to make a dish precisely according to their specs.

Nobody cooks like that. Not even if you're following a recipe.

[teddywolf]

Hmm. Explains why I feel no need to send CI any of my recipes.
I do wonder how much of the attitude over there at ATK comes from Legal and how much it comes from Christopher Kimball.

[anahata56]

I've been puzzling and puzzling over this, trying to figure out why any food publication would think it smart to have such a draconian attitude. I can see copyright issues in other areas of publication, but this?

I don't know how they could possibly consider recipes in any way "ownable". As has been pointed out, one cannot copyright lists of ingredients, and can only copyright directions if they are written in an anecdotal way (one cannot copyright, "Set the oven at 350F", whereas one may copyright "My sweet little old grandmama always set the oven at 350F to cook this dish").

But the point is that, for most of us who cook, the whole purpose of a recipe is to make it, enjoy it, and then share it. And while there may be some recipes that contain one's Special Mix of Ingredients (like your alfredo, yes?), and where the actual ingredients and method is part of one's unique culinary signature, usually one does not attempt to sell them for publication, if they're so precious.

I post food stuff all the time--and I'm thrilled when