Question:
How can I keep my recipes confidential if I need my cooks to make them? I have them in a binder and let my employees know that they are my secret recipes and that I can sue them if I find out they are using them outside of my business, but the reality is I don’t know that I would actually do that or even how I would prove it.
– Chef-Owner, Barbecue Restaurant
Answer:
By having your “secret” recipes in a binder where any of your staff members can presumably look at them or even take photos of them, they are likely not secret anymore. Your question raises common challenges with protecting confidential information in any business. Recipes also introduce a few wrinkles specific to the food business.
In general, confidential information such as trade secrets (recipes in this case) should be distributed on a need-to-know basis. Does your entire staff need access to all your recipes or do some cooks need access to some recipes or even some parts of recipes? Your recipes presumably have financial value to your business or you wouldn’t be keeping them secret. Imagine you left other valuable assets like titles to assets and cash out and available for employees to browse. You wouldn’t. So why would you handle your trade secrets that way? Keep your recipes locked up physically or electronically via password-protected folders.
As part of your onboarding and employee handbook, work with your attorney to draft an agreement where employees know the procedures for handling confidential information like trade secrets and the potential consequences if they don’t. You are right that these will be tough to enforce but it’s a good practice to be clear on the rules.
From a culinary perspective, the best way I’ve seen to handle the confidentiality of recipes is to have two versions: a chef’s version which has all the details and a cook’s version, which doesn’t show the whole picture. For example, in a barbecue restaurant like yours, the entire team doesn’t need to know the recipe for your dry rub. Consider, for example, blending all of your spices yourself, having only one trusted employee make the dry rub, or having an outside spice blender like Nu Spice do that for you. While you might know the ratio of the ten or twelve herbs and spices that go into your rub, what your cooks need to know is how much to spread on the meat as well as the ingredients and allergens should guests inquire.
Finally, while your recipes may be valuable and you’ll want to protect them, remember that they are just a small piece of the puzzle of your restaurant’s success. Even if someone else has your recipe, it takes the brand, the hospitality, the location, the atmosphere, the team, and so much more to bring it to life.
As always, this column is not legal advice. Consult with an attorney on the systems you should be putting in place to protect your trade secrets. More on protecting recipes here.