RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi has scored a major win against Bake with Brooki’s Brooke Bellamy.
Both cookbook authors were nominated at this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards, in the Illustrated Book of the Year category, for their books RecipeTin Eats: Tonight and Bake with Brooki.
Nagi was declared the winner at the award ceremony on May 7, making this her second win in this category. Brooke was not in attendance and was understood to be at a pop-up bakery venture in the United Arab Emirates
Reflecting on the win, Nagi took to Instagram to express her “honour”.
“To my team – thank you for your support for all those months I disappeared into the book-making black-hole (and all that Moroccan lamb and seafood pie you taste tested🤣),” she wrote. In her post, she also dedicated the award to her publisher, Pan Macmillan.
“For the whole team. I am proud to call you my publisher. Success and integrity. WE DID IT!!” she wrote.
What has RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi accused Bake with Brooki of?
The win comes after the RecipeTin Eats author made allegations in late April that her caramel slice and baklava recipes were plagiarised in Bake with Brooki, which Brooke has denied.
“I’m no stranger to seeing my recipes copied online,” Nagi wrote in an Instagram post on April 29.
“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 plagiarised 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 also provided side-by-side screenshots at the time comparing the measurements, wording, and dates of the recipes. According to the screenshots she shared, Nagi’s caramel slice and baklava recipes were published in 2020 and 2018, and Brooke’s book was published in late 2024.
What has Bake with Brooki’s Brooke Bellamy said about the allegations?
In a series of Instagram stories after the allegations, the Bake with Brooki author said that she offered to remove the recipes from future reprints of her books. “I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since October 2016,” the Brisbane baker and content creator wrote in a statement.
She also wrote that Nagi’s recipe did not appear online until four years later, but the RecipeTin Eats founder shared a screenshot on her Instagram stories showing it was archived in April 2016.
“I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book, which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years, since falling in love with baking as a child and growing up baking with my mum in our home,” Brooke said.
In a separate statement to Pedestrian TV, she said the ordeal was “distressing” for her colleagues and family.
“Like many bakers, I draw inspiration from the classics, but the creations you see at Brooki Bakehouse reflect my own experience, taste, and passion for baking, born of countless hours of my childhood spent in my home kitchen with Mum,” she said. “While baking has leeway for creativity, much of it is a precise science and is necessarily formulaic. Many recipes are bound to share common steps and measures: if they don’t, they simply don’t work.
“My priority right now is to ensure the welfare of the fantastic team at Brooki Bakehouse and that of my family.”
Her publisher, Penguin Random Hous,e also denied the plagiarism claims.
“Our client respectfully rejects your client’s allegations and confirms that the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy,” a spokesperson said.
Speaking out
While she aired her allegations recently, Nagi said in another statement posted to her Instagram stories on April 29 that she “tried” and went back and forth with Brooke and her publisher for six months and hired lawyers.
“I have nothing to gain out of speaking up, except that I believe it’s the right thing to do. I do not want their money. I didn’t even ask for reimbursement of legal fees.”
“Reminder: I did not make the statement lightly and without doing serious groundwork.”
