I wrote a post recently about a bento lunch in which I had French toast and SPAM squares, which I ate like sandwiches. It was very simple to make, so simple in fact, that 1) I didn’t use a recipe and 2) I didn’t even think of what I did as a recipe.
This was the lunch I’m referring to:
Imagine my bemusement when I received this comment today, from someone named Patti Evert:
You stole the French Toast and Spam recipe from me. I have had it published on Allrecipes.com, my own recipe, so I would appreciate it if you would give me credit. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Toast-and-Spam-Sandwiches/Detail.aspx.
I thought I’d respond to Patti publicly, as I am personally affronted by her accusation. In fact, let me take this opportunity to explain to Patti why this accusation is completely unreasonable and utterly ridiculous. I’ve emailed Patti to tell her I’ve responded to her accusation here at this post.
Firstly: I think it’s absolutely ludicrous to claim a “recipe” like this as your own. It’s certainly not that original. Patti, you’d probably like to think that your recipe is a unique idea, but seriously, I think you’ll find other people have come up with similar ideas, without needing to copy or even be inspired by your “recipe”. I wasn’t even aware of your “recipe” until you decided to accuse me of theft.
Would you like to accuse these people of theft of your recipe?
Zippy’s Online menu (see French toast sandwich).
Or maybe you already have.
Secondly: Patti, if you had bothered to do any research and looked at previous posts at how I make French toast, you’d see very quickly that I make French toast differently to how you do. In fact, I’ve published a “recipe” for my version of French toast previously (and I don’t claim it as “my own recipe” – it’s just my version of a popular dish that can be made in a variety of ways). Your French toast consists of bread, milk and eggs. I describe the way I make French toast in my own words on my site. I use bread, soy milk, eggs and a little raw sugar or honey. I fry my French toast in a little butter. I notice your recipe says nothing about butter. It could be argued that your version of French toast and my version of French toast would taste quite different, since my French toast has sugar or honey in it and is fried in butter. A stolen recipe? I think not.
The funny thing is, when I made the French toast and fried up the SPAM for my bento lunch, I actually did not intend to eat the SPAM and French toast as sandwiches; in fact, I packed myself maple syrup to eat with the French toast as a kind of dessert, and I planned to eat my SPAM as meat to go with the salad I’d packed. I cut the SPAM and French toast in similar sizes more for presentational purposes than anything else. I didn’t even pack them as sandwiches, if you look properly at the photo. And in the end, the way I ate them was pretty relaxed, in a way that gave me maximum pleasure at the time, with only some of the SPAM and French toast eaten as sandwiches. I wrote: “I ate some of the French toast and SPAM as mini square sandwiches, yum. I ate some of the French toast with a little maple syrup. And then I ate some SPAM with maple syrup.”
Hmmm. Given that I’ve demonstrated how my “recipe” for French toast is actually quite different to Patti’s, I think what she meant to accuse me of was not stealing her recipe as such, but stealing her idea. But as I’ve said earlier, the idea to combine French toast with SPAM (or indeed ham, bacon, sausage or any other breakfast meat) is certainly not unique to her. She’d probably like to believe that, but it just isn’t the case.
If Patti had looked carefully through my site, she’d see that I always acknowledge my sources when I do use other recipes, or have been inspired by them. I have nothing to gain by claiming other people’s recipes as my own. I also don’t feel compelled to claim simple recipes such as “French toast and SPAM sandwiches” (well, seeing as I didn’t actually set out to make French toast and SPAM sandwiches, there really was no “recipe” anyway, I just described how I happened to eat my French toast and my SPAM that day!) as my own. If someone out there on the internet happened to cut their French toast into squares, I certainly wouldn’t accuse them of stealing my idea or my recipe.
Patti, I have been making French toast and cooking with SPAM for years; I have certainly not copied or stolen your “recipe” (nor would I need to); you are completely naive if you think you are the only person out there who would ever come up with the idea (idea, not recipe – and I have proven in this post that I certainly did not steal any recipe of yours) to combine French toast with SPAM. If you think having taken the time to write out the “recipe” for French toast and SPAM sandwiches gives you some sort of authority or claim as the author of the “idea” or “concept”, you’re wrong. You’re not the only person to ever come up with the idea on your own. Some of us out there have brains and creativity too, and it doesn’t take much for us to think of combining our favourite foods to come up with even more enjoyable dishes.
And where did you learn to make French toast, Patti? Has anyone accused you of “stealing” their “recipe” for French toast? Or are you claiming French toast as your recipe as well? If you happen to like mustard and lettuce on a ham and cheese sandwich, would you accuse anyone else who made their ham and cheese sandwiches with mustard and lettuce of theft of “your recipe”? If that sounds utterly ridiculous to you, that’s because it is – and it’s as ridiculous as the claim you’re making.
So, it’s a big fat no from me – I will not be giving you credit as you have demanded, as you have no right to credit in this case. I did not get the “recipe” from you. I didn’t even get the idea from your “recipe”, and I certainly do not appreciate the manner in which you accused me of theft. I try to be nice to people; I generally don’t go out of my way to be nasty, confrontational or sarcastic to people, and indeed, I do receive many comments and emails from people that upset me, offend me, and make me angry – but I just could not sit back passively in this case and allow you to accuse me – wrongly and quite unreasonably – of theft.
The saga continues!
See Utterly ridiculous part 2 for Patti’s response.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m sorry someone wasted your time with the accusation that you used their “recipe.”
I love seeing your combinations of ingredients, and will be sure to credit you next time I make a salad for lunch ;)
Go TFP! You made all right points. I am with you on this. Patti, go find some one else to accuse. Patti’s accusations are baseless, pointless and rude. I think is a lesson for everyone on the internet. If it was a clear recipe (cut-and-paste), definitely TFP would have provided the link, recipe and step-by-step instructions. But this just turned out to be one of TFP’s own creativity. She was merely sharing her meal with us that day, and not the recipe because there weren’t any particular recipe to share at the first place! Clearly it was her OWN creation on her BENTO suggestions!
I’m going to write a nasty letter to PizzaHut (more popular here in the US than it is in Aus) for stealing the buffalo chicken pizza idea that I stole from someone elses recipe online. I MADE IT FIRST SO IT’S MINE! ALL MINE! I WANT ROYALTIES AND CREDIT! MORE RIDICULOUS CLAIMS THAT CAN’T EVEN BE SUBSTANTIATED SINCE YOU CAN’T EVEN COPYRIGHT A RECIPE NONE THE LESS CLAIM ONE AS BEING SOLELY YOUR OWN!!!!1!ONE!1 I’M TYPING REALLY HARD SO YOU CAN SEE HOW MAD I AM GRRRR!
Well said tfp!
Patti maybe you should take a closer look at intellectual propertly law and I think you will find that you do not indeed have a case.
You infact need to learn a lesson in manners and seeing the bigger things in life.
French toast and spam sandwiches for ALL!!!
I agree – utterly ridiculous. “You stole the French Toast and Spam recipe from me.” is very accusatory and totally unfounded. I’m very curious to hear how Patti will (or perhaps will not) respond.
Well said
I fried an egg for breakfast this morning. I’m thinking about trademarking it. ;-)
The nerve of some people!
*giggle*
*nods in agreement with TFP*
BTW, I can’t wait for 4 Oct!! :D
Wow, that’s like someone accusing me of stealing the recipe of the spam + fried sunny side egg sandwich (for lack of a more similar food item) that I like to make.
Or the idea of mixing an egg into instant noodles. Ridiculous!
French toast is such a ubiquitous food item too!
Anyway, good rebuttal. :D
Way to go tfp! :) Just read the original post and I can’t see why you should have “stolen” the recipe. Just because you accidentally used the same ingredients and decided to wrap the SPAM up in toast to eat it in the end? Now, please.
However that story sounds familiar to me: Here in Germany people have actually received written warning letters from lawyers for “stealing” a recipe and publishing it online, can you believe it?
By the by: A Google search for “french toast spam sandwich” gives you a whopping 32.600 results…
PS: I love your blog! :)
heehee. can’t help but giggle a little about this. seriously? spam and french toast sammies? she wants to be sure that other people don’t take credit for that? okiedokie.
hold your head up high. you are handling this little situation very well.
jess
You should pay her rent for using the interweb too. I’ll bet she invented that as well!
*long time lurker first time post*
Talk about getting owned! Good on you for sticking to your convinctions
keep up the awesome food pics
shit man TFP. i think patti might even send me a lawyer letter or something becoz recently i not only followed your way of making french toast and ate it with hell loads of honey, i even ate it with ham and bacon and spam and enjoy it like mad. and i think she might even send it to my sister and friends becoz that french toast was so darn good some of them actually made it for their family sunday breakfast. wtf =(
Good on you, TFP! :)
Amen, TFP!! I’ve read ur blog many many times and never commented but I just want to say how much i enjoy visiting! And boo yah to patti for her wrong accusation :)
LOL Patti just got pwned!
OMG, is this person for real??!! Seriously some people have too much time on their hands. Patti, did you ask the French for permission to use their ‘recipe’ before posting on the other site? i think not!
Nice response TFP! :-)
Brava, FP, nicely put!
way to go TFP. i agree with you.
Hey TFP, long time viewer (first post). I love your response to Patti, I hope Patti reads it. Don’t be too upset at Patti, she did bake a ham and even glazed it in pineapple, and didn’t realise until carving the ham that you take the plastic off the ham first! I’m glad she has now advanced to french toast…look out Gordon Ramsey!
WHAT THE EFF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??
I think it’s this kind of stingy petty mentality that is the root cause of most major global problems.
Patti – eat some spam and shut the hell up.
And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
:)
Actually, does it matter who’s “idea/recipe” it was?
As long as it tasted good, i dont see a reason why should anyone couldn’t come up with a “idea/recipe” like that.
Its like, very easy lo =.=
I could jolly well say i cut my apple skin .2cm thin and blame the inventor of the peeler stealing my “idea”
Cheer up. I love ur bento posts. Always makes my day + making me feel very motivated to make my very own :P
Woohoo! Go TFP!! We still love you, even if you are a recipe thief ;)
By the way, if you have milk and banana on your corn flakes, I would like credit, as I’ve been doing it since 1976.
I think patty needs to quit drinking the batter from the french toast…seems to be messing with her common sense!
Anyways, as much as I don’t like spam the principal of sweet and fatty and salty mixing together will never die and it’s just plain delicious! Instead of spam i’d use turkey sausage or turkey bacon as I don’t like beef/pork products very much.
TFP:
I was just thinking about how much I enjoy your posts and appreciate that you take the time to photograph and write for them. I’m sorry this comment and the person who wrote it left such a bad taste in your mouth. I would, however, suggest that you not put up her link because with the high traffic your blog gets, you are just diverting attention to hers. Hope to read another post by you soon!
Wow, her claim is absolutely ridiculous. Good for you for standing up for yourself!
This is my first comment here and I must say I really enjoy reading your posts, especially the bento ones! Excellent reply to that outrageous claim :)
I just notcied in that photo you have cucumber AND carrots. This was my idea, I eat this all the time and demand full aknowledgement from you!! :D
Good retort TFP, go you.
That IS ridiculous. My favorite lunch staple is a ham and cheese on a croissant, but you don’t see me publishing it on allrecipes and accusing people left and right of “stealing” it. By the way, Dunkin Donuts completely stole my idea! :P
Don’t worry, tfp. We’re on your side.
Oh Boy,
As my Mom says, It takes all kinds to make the world go round!
hey tfp.
for every nasty comment you receive, there is always a nice one!
just off the record, the bento lunches you make are lovely.
i doubt anyone of us readers really bother if the ‘recipes’ are plagiarized or not. and frankly, recipes cant even be plagiarized.
smile! :D
Oh Heavens to Murgatroyd. Patti, if you see this, for the gods’ sakes get over yourself, girl. What next, someone claiming that someone else has stolen a recipe for a boiled egg or a peanut butter sandwich ?
If you are going to accuse someone of plagiarism then at least make it something complex enough to have your own indelible personal stamp on it.
Good grief, what is this world coming to, really. Pathetic.
Good job TFP. I’m sorry but Ms Patti is messed up… That is not stealing a recipe.. I make that myself all the time! Some people have too much time in their hands it’s pathetic….
girl, where you mad or what!! u are right though, it’s a bit silly to claim almost any kind of sandwich as a “recipe”. I have yet to try SPAM and see what’s all the fuss about!!
lol
I adore you, TFP.
Spam, not so much… but you, yes.
:)
Okay, I was naughty! I looked “her” up on all recipes.
http://allrecipes.com/Cooks-Profile/Main.aspx?userID=1063835
go you! that was well written, and well put. I find pattie to be totally unreasonable in her attempt (and FAILURE) to get credit where she does not deserve it. i love your pictures and your recipes and keep it up! i love lurking and reading your posts!. (well i love breakfast too. =D)
Note to self: Never piss TFP off.
Patti needs to put her big girl pants on and grow up.
What a ridiculous person. That’s not even a recipe. McDonald’s doesn’t go around suing everyone that makes an Egg McMuffin at home.
Hi TFP,
I think Patti needs to get her head checked!! haha I mean that in the nicest possible way of course ;)
Keep up the brilliant work! I’m a long time reader but this is my first comment. Patti’s ‘claim’ is just so ludicrous that I felt complelled to comment for the first time :)
(Coming from a linguist-in-training): very sound argument!
I like it that you are methodical, logical and rationale in refutting her unfounded claim.
Personally, unless one uses a UNIQUE recipe and try to pass it off as her own invention, that’s stealing and plagiarism. If one simply uses a recipe, it’s all right, especially when nowadays you can find multiple versions of any recipe online.
wow, ridiculous, they’ve flamed her plenty above, I’d just like to say it in my own words:
OWNNNNNNNNNNNNNND
SPAM & FRENCH TOAST is a copyright recipe? ..how absurd! Patti must be some uneducated redneck hillbilly..yee-ha! LoL
Patti, grow up. You sound like a 5 year old. TFP, you rock, EXCELLENT comeback =]
Sue the French, I say to Patti.
I don’t know how things are in Oz but in the USA recipes can’t be copyrighted because they are pretty easy to figure out on one’s own.
anddd my internet cut off the rest of that other comment…anyways, that’s ridiculous, did she give props to hommel for spam? or her super market for the bread? and eggs? She gets credit for ruining this though, that’s for sure. Just keep doing what you’re doing, pay no attention to her. It’d be interesting if this got as far as the courts, you’d have people worldwide backing you =D
Good gravy! I’m sorry that you got such an unpleasant message, FP. On the other hand, it’s provided a few chuckles on my end. I checked out the person’s recipe, and I found it rather amusing. Considering that 1) everyone knows how to make French Toast and 2) SPAM is already prepared – all you do is heat it, her ‘recipe’ basically boils down to this: “Wrap one piece of meat with one slice of French toast.” Okaaaaay. Better slap a patent on that baby before the secret gets out!
How ridiculous! You have every right to be ticked off at Patti’s comment. If she is so protective of “her” recipe, then why publish it online at all?
If she had bothered to read your blog, she would have realised that every time you do use another person’s recipe, that you give it proper credit.
I’m also sorry that you receive comments and emails that upset you. I think that’s grossly unfair – all you’re doing is sharing the food that you love :)
Keep up the posts, tfp.
(Speechless)……
*snorts*
i’m glad you responded like that. her claims were simply ridiculous. TPF 1, Patti 0!
Totally on point. Ridiculous, self-involved, way too much time on her hand Patty.
That said, what I’m really excited about in your post is about Zippy’s!!!
I love Zippy’s! It was a mainstay of my childhood, especially my teenage years as our late night “hangout.” Gotta love those 24-hour Zippy’s. Guaranteed lovely grinds anytime of the day & night!
Good job in arguing back! And you have a point :)
As previously commented upon, what I like most about TFP’s blog is her unbridled enthusiasm for food of ALL types, and her absolute lack of pretentiousness. TFP is unique amongst food bloggers in covering with equal ardour ALL food experiences, from home-packed lunches and bento boxes, to fast food, to morning tea at the office, to food halls, to home-cooked dinners, to weekend takeaways from the local shopping centre, to upmarket dine-out treats.
Patti is just another of many, many precious food bloggers who fancies herself as something special when she is same old same old. Spam and French toast seems like an odd combo to me – I wouldn’t be rushing to claim copyright on this! (But I accept that others might like it!).
Anyway, in terms of originality, going by the evidence on the web, TFP is, and Patti isn’t. Simple as that. I think that sums up the latter’s copyright claim, also.
If I were you, TFP, I would not waste further time defending yourself that could be better spent on your fabbo blog.
This silly woman has no case whatever. To use the word of the moment, delete her claims as spam.
The way Patti said “You stole the French Toast and Spam recipe from me” is very rude, especially since you didn’t post a recipe at all. Weeeeird. And I agree – it’s hardly a recipe and I’m sure someone else has published the exact same recipe somewhere else on the internet too, so does that mean she stole it from them?
I hope she reads your reply and all the comments and is a big enough person to apologise to you.
I doubt it, but you never know.
Ah FP, I live for posts like this :) Good on you, there are some nutsos on the internet. I’m waiting for her counter-attack :D
Geez! What can i say, nothing, so i’ll just repeat after TFP: Utterly Ridiculous!! I can’t believe the stupidity of some people!!!
Gosh! She has serious security issues, that woman! I happen to frequent allrecipes.com for recipes I need too – but I’d better stop, cos I might get a comment from her one day too!
Keep up the good work k~
You go girl!
go tfp!!
Hahaha, go tfp! Even after reading all those comments above, I can’t help but to add my “What a moron,” comment to them. I think too often these idiots get ignored; I don’t know if you read dooce.com for example, but it sounds like morons send her hateful, hurtful and brainless emails all the time. She may well have to put up with that from her fellow americans, but I think your blog is less about anything that could even be slightly controversial and more about the AWESOME FOOD PICTURES, and you damn well shouldn’t have to put up with it. These people should damn well be ridiculed and publicly.
Every time I’m at the supermarket these days I look consideringly at the spam thanks to your blog. You’re a great promoter! :D I haven’t bought any yet- (hasn’t been on special hehehe) but I can’t wait to try is again. I think I must have last had spam about 20 years ago.
You go girl! :) I shall now patent the sunny side up fried eggs recipe as my own and every one in the world must pay me royalties to use it! :P hey, if she can do it, why can’t I? :)
You STOLE my recipe for SANDWICHES! You should have given me credit! Just kidding. Man, some people think everything is about them…
Ummm *scratching head* errrr *laughing in disbelief*…
http://aloshaskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/07/illegal-or-not.html
http://aloshaskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-loving-response.html
Sorry, you don’t have to totally read those if you don’t want. I’m not trying to “make” you sit through my posts. I just find it incredibly amusing.
Yes, Patti was wrong. I don’t think I could add anything more to what you so eloquently said. Or what I said when the same thing happened to me. Wow. *Still laughing*
way to go TFP ! good response to such a silly claim.
That was hilarious. You can probably hear me laughing all the way from Australia! Well handled, excellent post!
I must agree that her french toast with spammies isn’t that original. Any reasonable person could have done that for ages and not claimed it as their own. After all, as kids, we eat french toast with omelette, french toast with baked beans too.
I am sorry to hear that you had needed to waste time replying to such frivolous accusation.
Hee hee. I’m just a lurker that likes to see what you’re eating. Does Patti just troll around the internet to see who is putting spam and french toast together to accuse them of theft? Sheesh. Get a life, do you think you are Cook’s Illustrated? The fact that the french toast ‘recipes’ are obviously different make your claim even more absurd. You go, TFP!
What a knob – the end.
Thanks, guys. I knew I could count on you to be rational and reasonable (unlike someone else).
A few of you have asked whether I’ve had a response from Patti. No, I haven’t received one at this stage. I will let you all know if I do.
Melissa,
I did read your posts back when you went through all that hoo-hah. That was a pretty ridiculous stand from Cook’s Country too. I thought you handled it really well, and I enjoyed the way you wrote about it. I think it’s important for bloggers to write about and discuss these sorts of incidents. How else can we stand up for ourselves, right?
RavenKittie,
You know I’m in Australia too, right? I’m in WA! :)
Thanks again, guys. Let’s all enjoy our food and be “thieves” together! :)
You go girl, tell her & EXPLAIN it well, lol. I know I would if it was me ….. Keep posting your blog is kool & fun.
Thats so funny Patti got stirred up by your spam-toast-sangas…better not tell her my 15 yr old son who has never read a recipe on the internet and certainly does not know Patti or follow your blog (although he aspires to be a chef so maybe he should read some food-porn)…he has been making spam and french toast sangas (which we call eggy-bread) for many years and heaven forbid anyone who pinches one piece of his carefully counted out slices and messes up the bread to spam ratio…maybe Patti leads a very sheltered life?!
Ton,
Yep, perhaps she does! Oh well, it was entertaining, at least. :)
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