For the past 10 years, beloved home cook Nagi Maehashi has served up delicious, easy-to-follow recipes via her RecipeTin Eats website.
But in late April, the financier turned food blogger accused baker Brooke Bellamy of plagiarising two of her recipes.
Nagi claimed the recipes in question appeared in the Bake with Brooki cookbook, released by Penguin in October 2024. Brooke and Penguin vehemently deny the claims.
“I’m no stranger to seeing my recipes copied online,” Nagi told her 1.6 million Instagram followers in an April 29 post.
“But seeing what appeared to be my recipes printed in a book launched with a huge publicity campaign from one of Australia’s biggest publishers was shocking.”
“I’m speaking out because staying silent protects this kind of behaviour. Profiting from plagiarized recipes is unethical, even if not a copyright breach, and it’s a slap in the face to every author who puts in the hard work to create original content rather than cutting corners,” she added.
Nagi also shared some side-by-side recipe examples.
In one, she compared her method for baking caramel slice, which she published in 2020, with the one that appeared in Brooke’s 2024 book. She added: “It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work”.
Brooke founded her sweet treats outlet, Brooki Bakehouse, in 2016 and now has three stores in Brisbane. She also has two million followers on TikTok.
Shortly after Nagi went public with her allegations, Brooke responded with a statement denying she had “plagiarised any recipes in my book”.
She added that she had the “greatest respect” for Nagi and claimed that she had been baking the disputed caramel slice recipe since 2016 –four years before Nagi shared a similar recipe on her website. Lawyers representing Penguin also denied Nagi’s claim.
Time will tell how this spicy drama turns out…
