What would you do if.....

Okay, here's a question for you all. As I told you I left my job. I went to get my stuff, clear my desk, etc. I had two big loose leaf note books that had all my recipes in them. These were my recipes, I brought them with me. I have used them for his restaurant but they are mine. He took them! He says he has to go through them to see if I am trying to take his recipes. Guys, I made his sorry little recipes day in, day out for 5 years....why does he think I would have to write them down to remember them? Meanwhile alot of work has gone into my notebooks, all my notes....grrrrr!
So! What do I do? How do I get them back? I have called several times but he "hasn't had time to go through them!"I know he is just trying to piss me off and jerk me around and it's working!
On second thought maybe this isn't a question, maybe it's a rant!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 11:03 pm: Edit

Get a lawyer, have him write a letter.
Before that I'd make a police report, and ask the detective to see/talk to this fool. Have the detective get your books back. If you did not sign a letter saying that all recipes were the property of the rest., then all the recipes are yours.
Then I'd get a lawyer, and threaten to sue, the s.o.b.
but,...thats me.
of course, I've been known to go other paths.
But I'm trying to stop doing that, and stay out of jail.
LOL

By Point83702 (Point83702) on Friday, May 03, 2002 - 01:16 am: Edit

Restaurant owners are crazy. I used to work for an owner who had all his employees sign a confidentiality contract stating that if an employee or former employee was caught reproducing one of "his" menu items somewhere else, or something similar, they would pay $1000.00 per each. This was an italian restaurant and the menu consisted of lasagne,chix parm, spag and meatball, alfredo, picatta, and the like. The kicker was most of the house recipes were taken verbatim from Marcela Hazan's Classical Italian Cooking, and a few from Martha Stewart! How can you own chicken picatta!? I guess I can rant too.

By Chefgbs (Chefgbs) on Friday, May 03, 2002 - 07:15 am: Edit

HI Gayle,

I wouldn't worry too much about the recipes. Tell him to make copies and give the originals back to you. Hopefully you have the handwriting of a doctor. He or anyone else for that matter would have a hard time reproducing your recipes. Especially if another chef goes into your position. Did you follow the recipes exactly? I have found that if you give a recipe to 10 different people, they are going to come out with 10 different results. I myself have tried to follow other people's recipes, people who swore their recipes worked, with very limited success. Maybe a whole lot of love and a pinch of ego should be listed as ingredients in the recipe. Those, he'll never be able to replace.

Do you have any friends there who could get the notebooks back for you without jeopardizing their own jobs?

By Gayle (Gayle) on Friday, May 03, 2002 - 04:40 pm: Edit

I had to laugh Point83...He is just like that, thinking his recipes are so special that anyone would need to waste time stealing them. I wonder....his name wasn't Paul, was it?
Chefgbs, I'm not concerned that he will copy them, that's fine by me. I got most of them from somewhere else as well. And you're right, none of them could be made by anyone but me because none of them are accurate! But they make sense to me and I would hate to have to figure them allout agian...And I hate to have the b**** jerking me around.
I think also that I would like to be totally finished with this place so I can move on. I put alot of myself into that job and it was very hard to leave it. This is just making it drag on.

By Chefgbs (Chefgbs) on Friday, May 03, 2002 - 07:51 pm: Edit

I'm sorry Gayle, what was the b**** word? My vocabulary is extensive and I am familiar with most of the bleepable words, but the only word I can figure out refers to a woman, unless, of course, you are in fact using that "B" word that rhymes with witch to refer to this guy. Just curious.

BTW, how's your horse?

By Gayle (Gayle) on Friday, May 03, 2002 - 10:38 pm: Edit

That B****** word would be Bastard I believe! (I lost some *'s) I'm not sure what kind of vocabulary is acceptable here...seeing as most of us tend to have language that would make a marine blush. While this seems natural in a kitchen it is sometimes better to temper it here on the outside.
Horse is okay. She has an updraft nebulizer thingee and gets Albuterol like people with asthma do.. I's pretty funny to see her standing there with the mist puffing out of her nose! She gets this concerned look as if she's thinking "oh no, I think my nose is on fire...."