My name is Peter and I steal recipes. There. I’ve said it. I’ve admitted it. I’m now on the road to recovery.

Of course we all do it. Some recipes are given to us. Others we copy out of magazines or from the Internet. Some we see on television or in a book. Some we copy verbatim. Others we paraphrase. When we cook the dish described in the recipe, we never make it exactly like the one we copied. We may think we do, but it’s never exactly the same.

If the recipe author has copyrighted their work, only the descriptive words can be protected. The actual prescription part of the recipe is not copyrightable. For the 1500 recipes in my various collections, even though I always credit the original source, the recipe becomes mine because all the descriptive material is new. (Have I just taken back my admission of being a recipe thief?)

So my recipe for chips de chou frisée is only sort of stolen. I started with Brenda Grimse’s recipe for kale chips, and let my imagination run loose. I think if you compare the words, you’ll find them much different, but the concept is all Brenda’s. Thank you, Brenda.