What Are Your Recipes Worth To You??

[crpntr1]

I'm no chef, I'm just a carpenter, but I love to cook. Italian, Chinese, BBQ, Creole ...you name it. But I really love Mexican food, cooking it and eating it. I have some very good friends, who are Spanish, that I've picked up some tricks from over the years, and I'm pretty proud of the Mexican dishes I make.

Now there's a guy in town that has a 50's style Burger place (a really good one) and has decided to open a "taco truck" style Mexican joint, and asked my wife if id be willing to share my recipes with him. If a friend wants a gumbo or arroz con pollo recipe, I've got it...but this guys gonna make money with my variations of some traditional tacos and enchiladas and a few other things, including sauce..

I ain't fixing to come off that for free :crazy: not even sure I want someone selling my dishes.

now this may sound silly to some of you but I know there's a few out there who will understand..what's your favorite recipes worth. Would you sell them?

 

[lordnoble]

I wouldn't sell them to friends or family, but if someone is going use them, I might ask that they change it in some way to make their own OR I'd have to do something similar to what you're doing...
-Jason

 

[crpntr1]

Well see that's the one difference Dave, what he wants are like grandmas or even moms. There mine. I'm not sure I want them being mass produced like this, even on a small scale, but I'm definitely not just gonna hand over to someone I don't even know for him to make money with..but I don't know what number,if there even is a number, will make me feel good about it.

my wife is telling me I'm wrong because I'm not making a living with them.

 

[sixmp]

Couldn't you just give him a few tips towards a recipe he already knows without giving away whats exactly in yours?
Like a push in the right direction?

That way your recipe is safe and hes got something for people to stuff in their faces :D

 

[crpntr1]

Dave your right I ain't selling them..I will however do as six has suggested.

Thanx guys

 

[crpntr1]

Yep..sale declined. I'll point out some chili's though :mrgreen:

 

[riptide]

As Chef I say if he can not make his own dishes he needs to get out of the business. He needs to learn the basics of what he want's to cook and experiment from there. I know you already made up your mind this I just my 2 cents worth.

 

[tbradsim1]

Keep them Chris, family maybe? Depends on who in The family LOL. The old cajun

 

[sjpipesmoker]

I've never heard of someone opening up a business and asking someone else for their recipes???
Has he offered you $ for your recipes? or does he expect you to hand them over??
I don't see nothing wrong with selling them to your friend if you can come up with a amount??

 

[matchstickman]

"If you're good at something, never do it for free"- The Joker in the film "The Dark Knight." Just had to throw that out there. :mrgreen:
In all seriousness, I used to be a line cook in a little Italian place for few years, and I was charged with very few things: Boiling pasta for pasta dishes, frying anything that needed to be cooked in a deep fryer, and once I got a little bit of experience under my belt they let me take over as the main pizza maker. We got a new head cook about 6 months after I started, and I tried to squeeze the recipe to the Bolognese sauce out of him (which was by far and away the best Bolognese I have ever had hands down.) He told me that when he signed on for the job, he had to sign two different waiver forms saying that if he ever tried to reproduce the recipes that he was given in a setting outside of the company kitchen, he was subject to legal action. 8O So it's apparent to me that some people take their recipes very seriously, and rightfully so.
As far as me? The recipe for my famous Smokehouse Triple Meat Chili is a secret that will be taken to the grave with me. :twisted:

 

[topd]

As a sportsman, I've been collecting game recipes from magazines like 'Field and Stream' for years. I've

been taping the clipped articals in a large business record book since about '71. I also add recipes from

my favorite cooks like Justin Wilson, Paula Deen and Graham Kerr.
Although I got them for free, I'd never sell my collection. I would pass them on though.

 

[dochudson]

I would ask what percentage of the 'truck' profits you will be getting in exchange for the recipes. Food trucks are huge business around here I would try to pardner up with him on the truck as there will be more.

 

[hobie1dog]

As once said, " unshared knowledge and discoveries are worthless".
“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world, is and remains imortal.”

― Albert Pine
Why wouldn't you want to have the community be able to experience the pleasure of your recepies?

 

[buster]

Good point Hobie.
Maybe you could talk to the guy over beers and ask that he name the dish after you? I would negotiate for a decent bottle of Scotch or tequila on your birth day for five years.

 

[crpntr1]

OK so here's what I did..I made him a sample dish, with enchilada, one taco each of El pastor, pollo de rojo, and barbacoa, some rice, charro beans, homemade chips and salsa

Told him the basic ingredients for each and that he should work with them to get everything to his liking. I might be weird but I don't want my name on it if I didn't do it..he was satisfied with the info I gave him

 

[topd]

HaHaa! Cool Idea Chris!

 

[sparroa]

Chris, I think you did the right thing by not giving away the recipes - if they are good enough for other people to ask about them, then the only one who should be using them commercially is you! I don't think it'd be fair for someone to get your recipes and make a living out of it, while you probably don't even get a good meal out of the deal... Some things are worth keeping private.

 

[captainsousie]

I will not give away my recipes but I will help someone formulate their own with the tricks I have learned.

 

[hobie1dog]

Great gesture Chris. :clap: I'm darned proud of you.
The older I get, the more it bothers me the way society brainwashes everyone into thinking in terms of everything is mine, mine, mine, and you can't have it, because I worked for it and you don't deserve to even think about sharing it with me. Winning and competition rule todays society, separating us further each generation. Sharing is caring. Now if we could just eliminate the 20K plus people who die each day of starvation and water-borne diseases. ::
Off my soapbox now. :mrgreen:

 

[crpntr1]

I don't mind sharing, never have, even recipes. But the thought of him wanting to make money with them with out putting forth any effort bugged me. If he likes them that much he took notes and is in the right direction, I just think for it to be his he should..make them his own. I told him truthfully on ingredients.