Comment by jfengel

Recipes are the least of what goes into a restaurant. It's not a secret. In many restaurants the chef will give you the recipe if you ask nicely. If not, anyone skilled in the art could reproduce it.

Running a restaurant is a trillion other things. Ordering the right amount of ingredients. Hiring, training, and keeping staff. Cleaning the bathrooms. Replacing stolen silverware.

You're not paying for the secret recipe. There isn't one. You're paying for the insane amount of work that goes into putting cooked food on a plate.

Images are much more about the specific process that went into creation. The intellectual part that can be taken is a much higher fraction of the product.