Pave Your Way in the Food Industry: How to Sell a Recipe to a Company

Selling your recipes is an exciting path to success if you want to turn your passion for food into a way to make money. It’s one of the top ways home cooks and food bloggers monetize their hard work, and it offers some incredible opportunities. A lot of cooks and foodies want to sell their recipes to capitalize on their talent, but it can be difficult to know where to start. You might find the options online overwhelming or feel like you’re not yet experienced enough to start selling your recipes.

This guide is designed to make getting started with selling your recipes a lot easier. We’ll take a look at who you could sell them to, how to do it, and any legal considerations you might need to take into account before you get started. Plus, you’ll learn how to price your recipe to sell it for a fair price.

How to sell your recipe

The good news is that you have several options if you want to sell your recipes to someone else. The types of businesses you might look at as potential buyers include food magazines and websites, food companies, food equipment companies, and restaurants.

Each of these business types is often interested in buying recipes to help market their own products, services, or content. So there’s plenty of opportunity to find the right buyer.

One thing to keep in mind when you want to sell your recipes is that preparation is key. You need to follow the right steps to prepare your recipe for sale and choose the best buyers to approach. Your recipes need to be high-quality, so be sure to test them thoroughly. Ask family and friends for feedback to check that your recipe is easy to follow and delivers consistent results.

When selling your recipe, it’s also important to price your recipes reasonably and ensure that your portfolio appeals to buyers. Read on to discover how to do this!

Step 1: Price the recipe

Pricing your recipes can be tricky. If you’re not sure how to calculate the selling price of your recipe, you may end up undervaluing your work or never making sales due to overcharging. Before you look for a buyer, you should have a general price in mind. However, it’s also important to be flexible, especially when you’re just starting out. 

It’s also a good strategy not to reveal your intended selling price right away. If you can sense that a buyer is especially interested in your work, you may be able to strike a better deal than you initially had in mind! 

When calculating how much to charge for a recipe, you should first calculate how much the recipe costs to make. This helps ensure your costs are covered when developing the recipe. You should also include costs for your time and any other expenses you might have, such as content marketing, equipment maintenance, and more.

Of course, market research is also essential as this will help you understand the general going rate for recipes. Some recipe developers will happily tell you what they generally sell recipes for, though others may be more reserved. If you’re not comfortable asking fellow peers about this, then you can reach out to magazines and websites directly to set expectations. 

Step 2: Create a portfolio

A digital portfolio gives potential buyers somewhere to check out your work and learn a bit more about you.

Your portfolio should provide information on your culinary background and any relevant experience or credentials that you might have. If you focus on a specific type of cuisine, your portfolio is a great opportunity to highlight this – both through the work you share as well as in your personal bio. No matter whether you’re a professional chef or an enthusiastic home cook, sharing what you know and how you know it makes you more marketable.

An overview of the recipes you’re pitching and what makes them special will help give buyers an idea of what they can expect from you. You don’t need to provide a full recipe and method at this stage, though you should include good-quality photos of finished dishes as visual support.

If you have a food blog or social media related to your recipes, you should include relevant links in your portfolio. However, keep in mind that businesses often want to have exclusive rights to recipes, at least for a period, so you won’t be able to publish them yourself as well.

One of the easiest ways to set up your portfolio is using WordPress and WP Recipe Maker – an indispensable plugin that allows you to showcase your recipes. You can even showcase recipes you don’t plan on selling, which is a great strategy, as businesses interested in your work will see what you have to offer. From the backstory of your recipe to ingredient selection and final images of the final dishes, you can easily show what you’re capable of. This makes it even easier to pitch new recipes to publications or websites!

Having a solid portfolio is crucial when pitching your recipes to publications. Think of it as a chef’s resume – it demonstrates your range and capability in creating appealing dishes. A robust portfolio provides concrete evidence of your skills and increases the likelihood of your recipes getting noticed and published. It’s an essential tool to showcase your talent and make a compelling case for why your recipes deserve a spot in the publication.”

Birthe Vandermeeren

Cofounder of Bootstrapped Ventures

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Step 3: Make a list of potential buyers

Now you have an idea of how you can prepare to sell a recipe, how do you find people to sell to? Start by making a list of magazines, websites, and food companies you think could be suitable to pitch to. Food publications like TASTE, The Kitchn, and Food52 are good places to start. There are lots of options out there, but you should avoid indiscriminately pitching to all businesses. Try to focus on businesses that fit with your style of cooking. You can also target food businesses linked to branded products that you use in your recipe. If you use a particular piece of equipment in your recipes (such as an air fryer, food processor, mixer, etc.), that could be a way to find relevant brands, too.

Before sending a pitch, you should try to find the relevant person to contact. Instead of using a generic email, use resources like X (Twitter) and LinkedIn to find the commissioning editor and contact them directly.

Some businesses will also have established submission processes that they list on their websites. This is particularly the case with online magazines and blogs. Finding and following this will get you off on the right foot, showing that you’re able to do your own research and follow instructions.

Another type of business you might consider targeting is local restaurants. Smaller establishments might be looking for new inspiration and could be more interested in what you have to offer.

Step 4: Make contact

Once you’ve done all the preparation, write a short cover letter to include with your email and send it out with your portfolio to the people on your list. Tailor your cover letter so it’s more personalized, making sure to use individuals’ names.

You might find it useful to keep a spreadsheet of people you have contacted. You can keep track of when you got in touch and whether you have received responses or sent a follow-up email. This will help you stay organized and prevent multiple emails to the same companies.

Managing the legal aspects: Copyright considerations and protection

Naturally, you want to protect your recipes when you sell them. Copyright is a legal framework that helps you do this, but it’s also important in regard to other people’s work. While most recipes are not covered by copyright (although creative text and images can be), it’s still important to give credit if you have adapted a recipe from someone else’s work.

To protect your own recipe, it’s a good idea to withhold sharing it at first. Wait until a full agreement has been reached before sharing so that you can prevent theft from any of the businesses that might be interested.

Other avenues to consider

Selling your recipes directly to businesses isn’t the only way you can make money from them. There are multiple other options that you might find work.

One option is to self-publish a cookbook or create an eBook that you can sell yourself. You can sell your book on various platforms, such as Amazon or Etsy, or sell it through your own website. A lot of work is required to put a book together, but it could be worth it if you have an audience willing to buy it.

If you have a food blog or you’re thinking of starting one, monetizing it is another potential way to turn your passion into income. You can monetize a blog in several different ways, from finding sponsors to running ads or joining affiliate marketing programs. If you have a good social media following, starting a food blog is a good way to offer more to your audience.

Creating online cooking courses could work out for you too. Like books, you can sell these through your own website, or you can use third-party sites to host and sell your material. Maybe you have something you can teach people, such as cooking specific cuisines or certain techniques.

Turning passion into profit: Next steps with WP Recipe Maker

Following the right steps to sell your recipe will help you find the best buyer. Get ready by pricing your recipe and creating a portfolio that you can use to market your work. Make a list of potential buyers and find relevant people to contact before sending them your pitch. By following these steps, you could turn your recipes into profit.

Food blogs are a successful way of making money from recipes. If you’re a food blogger, WP Recipe Maker is an essential WordPress plugin. It has several features designed to help you monetize your work, including affiliate links for equipment and an enhanced system for Amazon affiliate links.

Start monetizing your blog today with WP Recipe Maker! Download the plugin to start making use of its many features for monetization and showcasing your talents as a recipe creator.