Recipe wars: RecipeTin Eats’ Nagi Maehashi claims Brooke Bellamy plagiarised recipes for best-seller

A war of words has erupted between two of Australia’s most influential cooks after serious allegations of plagiarism were levelled over a multi-million dollar recipe book.

Nagi Maehashi, whose RecipeTin Eats website is one of Australia’s most beloved recipe sites, alleges some recipes contained in wildly popular TikToker Brooke Bellamy’s new book Baking With Brooki contained extensive “word-for-word” similarities to recipes created by her and other authors.

Maehashi took to her website on Tuesday, telling followers that she had made copyright infringement allegations against “blue-chip publisher” Penguin Random House Australia

She said the best-seller contained plagiarised recipes from other cooks, including two of her own — for caramel slice and baklava.

“To me, the similarities between the recipes in question are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous.

“There are also recipes from other authors, including a very well known, beloved cookbook author where the similarities are so extensive, dismissing it as a coincidence would be absurd (in my opinion).

“Out of respect for and at the request of authors, I cannot share further details at this time.”

Maehashi, herself a best-selling author, said it felt like a blatant exploitation of her work and, because income from her Recipe Tin Eats site helps fund her food bank Recipe Tin Meals, it was “ethically indefensible”.

Maehashi, who shares her recipes for free on her website, said Penguin had denied the claims and at the time of posting she had not received a response from Bellamy.

She said profiting from plagiarised recipes was unethical and a “slap in the face for every author who puts in the hard work to create original content rather than cutting corners”.

It is understood Bake with Brooki, which retails for nearly $50 a book, had sold 92,849 copies in less than six months, which equated to $4.6m in sales.

Bellamy, who has one million followers on her @brookibakehouse Instagram page has responded in a post, denying the allegations.

“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 kitchen.

“On March 2020, Recipetin Eats published a recipe for caramel slice. It uses the same ingredients as my recipe, which I have been making and selling since four years prior,” she said.

She said she had offered to remove both recipes from future reprints to prevent “further aggravation” .

“I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done in recent years for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in Australia — especially as a fellow female entrepreneur,” Ms Bellamy wrote.

“Recipe development in today’s world is enveloped in inspiration from other cooks, cookbook authors, food bloggers and content creators.

“This willingness to share recipes and build on what has come before is what I love so much about baking and sharing recipes — the community that surrounds it.”

“I stand by my love for baking, my recipes, and the joy this book has brought so many home bakers around the world eager to try recreating my recipes from inside their homes.”

Penguin Random House has been contacted for comment.