The knives are out as two of Australia’s biggest cookbook authors are at war over sensational claims of recipe plagiarism!
Nagi Maehashi, known to many as a food blogger and the bestselling author of RecipeTin Eats, has slammed fellow baker and cookbook writer Brooke Bellamy over two sweet recipes she claims share some very stark similarities to her own.
Taking to her website, Nagi, 47, wrote, “I’m no stranger to seeing people copy my recipes online. But seeing what I believe to be my recipes and my words printed in a multimillion-dollar book launched with a huge publicity campaign from one of Australia’s biggest publishers was shocking.” They’re claims that Brooki categorically denies and calls “deeply distressing”.
In a statement posted to social media, Brooki said, “I do not copy other people’s recipes. 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.
“While baking has leeway for creativity, much of it is a precise science and is necessarily formulaic. Many recipes likely share common steps and measures. If they don’t, they simply don’t work.”
Brooki added she’s been making and selling the controversial caramel slice recipe since 2016. That’s four years prior to RecipeTin Eats publishing its recipe. But Nagi has hit back online, sharing that she published the recipe in 2016 as well.
The renowned food blogger, whose RecipeTin Eats books Dinner and Tonight have sold millions of copies worldwide, shared excerpts of her two recipes for caramel slice and baklava alongside recipes found in Brooke’s book Bake With Brooki.
“To me, the similarities are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous,” wrote Nagi.
“Profiting from plagiarised recipes is unethical, even if not a copyright breach. It’s a slap in the face to every author who puts in hard work to create original content.”
Nagi notes that Bake With Brooki has “sold more than 92,000 copies in under six months” after its October release. That would amount to around $5 million in sales.
Nagi adds, “To see [the recipes] plagiarised and used in a book for profit, without credit, doesn’t just feel unfair. It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work.
“Because the income from my website helps fund my food bank, RecipeTin Meals, this isn’t just legally questionable. I find it ethically indefensible.”
Making matters all the more awkward, Bake With Brooki has also been shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards alongside Nagi’s chart-topping book Tonight. The winner is set to be announced this coming Wednesday night.
Nagi claims that there are “other authors”, including one “very well known, beloved cookbook author” whose recipes also share “extensive similarities” to Brooke’s and while she chooses not to name any of them “out of respect”, other famous foodies are starting to come out of the woodwork to back her.
Just hours after Nagi went public with her claims, US baker Sally McKenney released a statement on Instagram. She stated that she believes Brooke also plagiarised her 2019 recipe, The Best Vanilla Cake I’ve Ever Had. She found it in Bake With Brooki and even in visual form on Brooke’s YouTube channel.
Sally adds that Nagi had alerted her to the similarities “months ago”.
“Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit,” Sally states. “Especially in a bestselling cookbook.”
Nagi has labelled the publisher of Brooke’s book Penguin Australia “profoundly disappointing” for continuing to sell it after she brought the matter to their attention in December 2024.
She adds that Penguin’s lawyers have contacted her. They said, “Our client respectfully rejects your clients’ allegations and confirms that the recipes in [Bake With Brooki] were written by Brooke Bellamy.”
Taking to her own Instagram, Brooke insists that she “did not plagiarise any recipes” and claims she swiftly offered to remove the recipes in question from future reprints of the book to “prevent further aggravation”. Nagi has yet to refute these claims, but has hired legal representation.
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