Luigi's

My wife and I went went to Campbell's last week for a cooking class led by Luigi from Luigi's pizza downtown. It was great! Luigi was very personable and made some great pizzas! His white pizza was amazing! He gave us recipes for his dough and sauce! I enjoyed it so much I went to his place yesterday and had a great "New York Roll". Fun times indeed! Go check him out on Main between 7th and 8th, across from the Science Center.

What is their "white pizza"? I hear they are New York style? My first "white" pizza was in New York and it was ricotta based. I hear traditional is no sauce at all. I had a couple of white pizzas here and one was alfredo and the other freaked me out with ranch.

Luigi's white is ricotta based. The "sauce" is simply ricotta mixed with a little water to help spread it out. With Luigi, I think toppings vary depending on what he wants that day. Very good, very different, and in no way should it be confused with an alfredo pizza. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that. This is just different.

Kris

[Robin Garr]

Luigi's white is ricotta based. The "sauce" is simply ricotta mixed with a little water to help spread it out. With Luigi, I think toppings vary depending on what he wants that day. Very good, very different, and in no way should it be confused with an alfredo pizza. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that. This is just different.

Luigi's "white pie" is indeed a NYC favorite, and a great variation includes the ricotta mixed with fresh spinach. It's good, and good for you!

(To clarify: I don't know that Luigi's makes a spinach pie, but I used to get one regularly at Grand Avenue Pizza in Astoria, Queens.)

Awesome! I will check it out then. I love that ricotta.

Please post his recipe for the dough.

First of all, I don't have the recipe with me. Second a question, and please understand I am not trying to be difficult. Is it OK to pass out recipes from someone that you got from a cooking class? I mean, since he gets paid for the class, and you having the recipes negates your need to go to the class, is this a proper thing to do? Any thoughts?

Perhaps the whole recipe and techniques as well.

First of all, I don't have the recipe with me. Second a question, and please understand I am not trying to be difficult. Is it OK to pass out recipes from someone that you got from a cooking class? I mean, since he gets paid for the class, and you having the recipes negates your need to go to the class, is this a proper thing to do? Any thoughts?

I see nothing wrong with it. They pass out the recipes in the class. The lady friend goes often to Campbells and I know some of the chefs and have never heard anyone complain about sharing. The handouts are not shown to be copyrited.

I say it's ok and it's not ok. Depends on the person. There are little nuances that go with cooking that aren't in recipe's. Ingredients are half the battle.

There used to be a bar around U of L 10-15 years ago called Dan's. Dan made the best homemade sauce and dough ever. I remember getting sloshed in there watching games with other college kids and seeing people come in and buy lump quantities of his dough/sauce. I miss those pizzas.

First of all, I don't have the recipe with me. Second a question, and please understand I am not trying to be difficult. Is it OK to pass out recipes from someone that you got from a cooking class? I mean, since he gets paid for the class, and you having the recipes negates your need to go to the class, is this a proper thing to do? Any thoughts?

If it was some type of trade secret he certainly wouldn't have given to a class full of people. Restaurants regularly give their recipes to the C-J, Food and Dining Mag, etc.

I say it's ok and it's not ok. Depends on the person receiving the recipe. There are little nuances that goe with cooking that aren't in recipe's. Ingredients are have the battle.

Well, is OK or not OK?

[Robin Garr]

First of all, I don't have the recipe with me. Second a question, and please understand I am not trying to be difficult. Is it OK to pass out recipes from someone that you got from a cooking class? I mean, since he gets paid for the class, and you having the recipes negates your need to go to the class, is this a proper thing to do? Any thoughts?

Answering for the record:

1. Legally, recipes are not copyrightable, under a long series of precedents. However, the narrative text surrounding recipes in a cookbook is.

2. As a practical matter, as others have said, normally when a chef passes out recipes in a class, he expects and hopes they'll be shared. It's good word-of-mouth advertising, and let's face it: The class is about much more than passing out recipes, it's about meeting the chef, watching him work, observing and learning from his procedures and all the tips he dispenses. If the recipe was the whole thing, he could just send in a stack and have people pick them up at the door and go on.

3. It's still good of you to ask. Even if they aren't subject to copyright, I'd just as soon err on the side of being decent to the creator of intellectual property. But I really don't see it as an issue here. Luigi will benefit far more from the publicity than he stands to lose from somebody making pizza at home instead of buying it at Luigi's.

Robin, you bring up a point of interest for me, but first, I too would like to thank Kris for his consideration for the chef. Consideration for people in GENERAL seems to be a dying trait. Thank you, Kris!

Ok, recipe copyrights... I have considered entering food contests, but if I remember correctly, some of the ones that are tied to larger companies require that you sign away your rights to that recipe, and it becomes their property. I have considered writing a recipe book, and have not been willing to do this. Do you have any more information regarding this topic?