fully acceptable, as it is entirely consistent with the different interests at stake: on the one hand, the right of the creator of the recipe to be acknowledged as the father of the dish and, on the other, the public’s interest in the dissemination of the new recipe, which may also be prepared by other chefs. However, this virtuous mechanism of recipe reproduction faces the limitation of plagiarism of the expressive methods with which a recipe is described and promoted to the public, according to the teachings of the Court of Milan. In the field of haute cuisine, however, different economic and marketing mechanisms come into play, which seem to require a different mechanism of legal protection. Starred restaurants and celebrity chefs tend to offer the public iconic dishes, impressive creations that become synonymous with a single chef. In these cases, the chef’s interest does not coincide at all with the spread of the dish on the market. On the contrary, the celebrity chef’s goal is to encourage the public to seek out a gastronomic experience at his restaurant, linked to a culinary journey that includes specific and sophisticated dishes. From this perspective, a simple protection of the expressive form of the recipe no longer satisfies the interests of this kind of chef. This is the reason why the creators of new dishes seek stronger legal protection for their creations. The particular attention paid to the aesthetic appearance and presentation of the dish, for example, can be registered as a design or become a figurative trademark. This is the case with the famous dish Riso e Oro (Rice and Gold) by Gualtiero Marchesi, an international culinary legend. The famous chef registered the stylisation of his iconic dish as a figurative trademark, consisting of a golden square on a dark yellow background, surrounded by a thick black border. The figure is nothing more than a graphic reproduction of Riso e Oro, a dish of saffron rice, on which a gold leaf is placed and presented on a large circular black plate. The name of the dish itself, Riso e Oro, has been registered as a word trademark. Thanks to these additional tools, the protection of the dish, not the recipe itself, is certainly stronger. The Riso e Oro dish was the subject of a mock trial organised by the University of Milan in 2015 on the protection of recipes under copyright law. In the imaginary case discussed in the mock trial, Gualtiero Marchesi’s dish was recognised as being protected by copyright and as having not only creative character but also a certain artistic value. The imaginary imitation of the dish by a phantom competitor, with the reproduction of the recipe, the aesthetic appearance of the dish and even the name Riso e Oro, was described as plagiarism, trademark infringement and unfair competition. These are hypothetical examples, which have not actually occurred in reality to date, 214 PAOLA GELATO | STEFANO VERGANO
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