Pay masters generously for teaching. Let goodwill finance retirement, across all three kinds of stall. Give families a ten-year stake in the name. And, we would argue, never buy silence, exclusivity or a discount on anyone's life's work.
The instinct to "buy the recipe before it is lost" is an understandable one, but we think it fails twice. Legally, a recipe is weak property – a rempah ratio is not copyrightable, and trade-secret protection evaporates at the moment of teaching, which is the entire purpose here. Morally, an institution that acquires exclusive rights from elderly tradespeople has put itself one enforcement letter away from suing a sick uncle for teaching his own nephew – a headline that would end the mission, and should.
This is a working paper for public discussion. Every number in it is an invitation to improve it. Corrections and better data are welcome.