re: SEC Tournament food - so only one fanbase can buy Po Boy bread locally?

Big Bob Gibson created his white sauce for his BBQ chicken. He put it on the chicken he sold out of his back yard BBQ pit on the weekends. When he opened his restaurant people would bring pint jars and buy it from him. Eventually he was convinced to make it in large batches and sell it in bottles in his restaurant, and eventually in stores.
He never bothered to copyright the recipe so over the years other people imitated his sauce but most of it was not very tasty.