The Best Way To Ask Your Friend For Their Secret Recipe

Do you have a friend who has a signature dish they bring to every potluck or tailgate party that you can never eat enough of, but feel nervous to ask them for the recipe? Perhaps it's a recipe that their grandma brought with her from the old country or an appetizer that your friend invented. Recipes, especially one that becomes associated with a person, can be an intimate thing.

As you work up the nerve to ask for the recipe, remember that really what you are doing is paying your friend a compliment. You are asking for the recipe because it is so good and you want to make it yourself. Still, you might worry that you are coming across as asking for too much. Or maybe you don't even know this person who made the amazing dish very well. The key might just be in how you phrase the request.

It's all in the wording

It's important to understand the significance of your friend's recipe before asking for it. Is it a recipe that has been in the family for generations or something your friend created or got from a cookbook? A good way to broach the subject is to ask how they acquired the recipe. 

The way you phrase a request also sets the tone for the response. Some more polite ways to begin a request include "I was wondering if ..." or "I was hoping ..."  Also, whether asking for a recipe or for a favor, it's important to take "no" for an answer and move on. 

Another element that might make asking for the recipe more comfortable is to share why you want the recipe and how you will use it. Will you make it for your immediate family or for a work potluck? Sometimes people feel comfortable sharing a recipe with a friend, but don't want it to be shared further to people they do not know.

Bottom line, it's best to be polite and complimentary when asking for a copy of a recipe, and it may be yours to make. But if not, at least you have the next potluck to look forward to.