Look behind the scenes at RecipeTin Eats where hard work and heart go into every meal

Food blogger Nagi Maehashi might be making headlines at the moment — but there’s no denying that she deserves her incredible success.

Along with having millions of devoted followers worldwide, the RecipeTin Eats founder has also started a charity to feed the vulnerable.

On the day the former corporate finance worker launched her recipe blog in 2012, she had just two visitors — her mum and herself. These days its viewed more than half a billion times annually.

Her charity RecipeTin Meals feeds the people most vulnerable in our community. With a recent upgrade to a bigger commercial space, they are now able to produce 600 meals a day that are distributed by charity One Meal.

They take pride that every single meal doesn’t only taste and look enticing, but is also nutritious and healthy. Recently, I experienced firsthand the passion and attention to detail they put into making every single dish a thing of beauty.

Within minutes of being put to work in the RTM kitchen the banter among her chefs was flying. I was gently ribbed about being slow and stingy in comparison to everyone else (which was true) and there were many laughs all round.

We checked out her home reno which is well underway. It’s a Victorian-Gothic structure full of stunning heritage features, but as Nagi and her builders have discovered (like so many others do when renovating an older home), it’s thrown up more than few surprises along the way.

But the challenge isn’t viewed as an inconvenience. Nagi and Nigel from H Squared have worked together on several other projects over the years and totally trust each other’s opinions and ideas. What started as a smaller reno is now a substantial one, but Nagi cannot contain her joy in being able to design her dream kitchen from scratch. She hopes to have a small kitchen garden out the back, with easy access for herbs and other fresh produce. And yes, her trusty golden retriever Dozer joined us for the day as site manager.

Ahead of Mother’s Day we took the opportunity to spend more time with Nagi’s family . . . her work family, that is. Her right-hand man is classically trained French chef JB Alexandre who has worked in Michelin-star restaurants around the world, including with the late Alain Chapel in Mionnay, near Lyon, and Daniel Boulud in New York. The team does include her actual family — her mother Yumiko is also a chef specialising in Japanese food. Yumiko’s blog RecipeTin Japan is another roaring success.

But don’t picture a young Nagi and her mum wrapping dumplings together, because that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“It was a shock to the system to move out of home at 18 and have to learn how to cook,” Nagi said. “Even harder than that — was to learn how to cook to the standard of food I’d been eating as a kid. Mum set the bar so high.”

It’s fair to say that Yumiko doesn’t believe in handing out false praise. She is no-nonsense and a gem. She absolutely schooled us in a gyoza making masterclass and made us laugh the entire time — we were in stitches! She is incredibly proud of Nagi’s achievements

When you spend a day with someone and observe the interactions they have with people from all walks of life, you get a real sense of who they are and what they stand for.

On this day, if you include all the on-camera cameos and behind the scenes workers (not to mention the excited members of the public) it was more than 40 people. This isn’t the first time I’ve spent time with Nagi and my sense of her every time I catch up is of an incredibly kind, generous soul who is always keen to acknowledge the teams of people she has around her, who repay her with respect and adoration.

She is self-deprecating and has a warmth that comes from within. Yes — she works incredibly hard and is protective of her turf, but a day with Nagi is pure joy.

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