Can you patent a recipe?

An inventor is entitled to a patent for their invention if the invention is new, useful and non-obvious.  Most recipes, even highly creative ones, are combinations of known ingredients using known cooking processes.  As such, when a recipe is examined for patenting, it is usually found to be "obvious".  Obviousness in patent law has a very precise meaning: it means that a person of ordinary skill in the art, having before them references to processes and components in the invention from the past, would find the combination of the processes and components in the invention to be obvious. Sometimes a totally new process applied to food can result in a non-obvious patentable invention.  Consider U.S. patent number 548,086, granted to Henry Perky in 1890 for shredded wheat cereal.  But usually a recipe, even a very great and gastronomically artistic recipe, is unpatentable because of obviousness. I suggest your friend engage a patent attorney for a short consultation (it needn't be very expensive) specific to the facts of the recipe.  Note that registration as a patent attorney is a nationwide license.  You are not limited to patent attorneys in your local area.  Your friend can contact a patent attorney anywhere for advice.