Brooke Bellamy dropped from ambassador role amid copycat cookbook accusations she denies

News.com.au

01-05-2025

The drama surrounding a $4.6 million cookbook has deepened overnight with Brooke Bellamy copping a crushing blow as she strenuously denies claims of copying recipes.
Bellamy has been dropped from an ambassador role while the cook who accused her of copying her recipes has been accused of failing to properly credit a fellow celebrity chef.
The popular TikTok star and Brisbane bakery owner was accused by fellow author and cook Nagi Maehashi of plagiarising two recipes in her best-selling book, Bake with Brooki.
A famed US baker, Sally McKenney, then claimed that a cake recipe from a book she had published in 2019 was also used in Bellamy's 2024 cookbook, which has racked up an estimated $4.6 million in sales.
Bellamy denies ever copying another baker's recipe and said the backlash she has faced since the accusations first emerged has been 'deeply distressing'.
The Courier Mail now reports she has been dropped from working as ambassador for the Academy for Enterprising Girls, a federally funded entrepreneurship program for young women aged between 10 and 18.
'Brooke Bellamy was recently engaged to conduct a small number of promotional activities for the Academy for Enterprising Girls program over the coming months,' an academy spokesman told the Queensland masthead.
'While we make no legal assessment on the allegations aired in the media, we have informed Bellamy that we will not move forward with the engagement at this time.'
news.com.au has contacted Bellamy and the Academy for Enterprising Girls for comment about the decision.
Fresh twist in cookbook drama
Meanwhile, in a fresh twist in the cookbook copycat saga, celebrity chef Luke Mangan claimed he had not been not credited appropriately for a butter chicken recipe by Bellamy's accuser, Maehashi.
'She has credited my recipe, but I would have preferred a bigger mention and at least linking people to our website,' he said, according to The Courier Mail.
When a butter chicken recipe, adapted from Mangan's version, appeared online, a footnote reportedly referenced Mangan — but the recipe printed in her cookbook only had a QR code linking to the online credited version.
The Courier Mail reported that Maehashi declined to comment but the publication did note the book contained the statement that 'the author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book'.
news.com.au has also reached out to Mangan and Maehashi for comment.
Nagi Maehashi's copycat allegations
Maehashi accused Bellamy of plagiarising her caramel slice and baklava recipes from her site RecipeTin Eats.
Additionally, she claimed that other authors had their recipes copied by Bellamy. Bellamy vigourosly denied these claims as well.
'I'm no stranger to seeing my recipes copied online,' Maehashi wrote in a post on Instagram and on her website. '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.'
'There are also recipes from other authors, including from a very well known, beloved cookbook author where the similarities are so extensive, dismissing it as coincidence would be absurd (in my opinion),' Maehashi wrote in her post addressed to Bellamy and her publisher Penguin Books.
'Out of respect for and at the request of authors, I cannot share further details.'
Later on, McKenney, who blogs under @sallysbakeblog and boasts 1 million followers on Instagram, claimed that her vanilla cake recipe was used by Bellamy.
News.com.au reached out to Maehashi for further comment on the allegations. We also reached out to McKenney, who politely declined to comment.
Brooke Bellamy responds to copycat allegations
Bellamy – who opened her Brooki Bakehouse in Brisbane in 2022 – first responded to Maehashi's allegations via a statement released on Instagram on Tuesday.
'I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book,' the embattled cook began in her statement. 'I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since 2016. On March 2020, RecipeTin published a recipe for a caramel slice. It uses the same ingredients as my recipe, which I have been making and selling since four years prior.'
Bellamy went on to allege that she 'immediately' offered to remove the recipes from future copies of her book to prevent 'further aggravation', which she claims was communicated to Maehashi.
'I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in Australia.
'Recipe development in today's world is enveloped in inspiration from other cooks, cookbook authors and food bloggers and content creators. The willingness to share recipes and build on what has come before is what I love so much about baking and sharing recipes.'
Penguin has also denied the claims in a statement sent by their lawyers to Maehashi's lawyer, which reads: 'Our client respectfully rejects your clients' allegations and confirms that the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy.'
Bellamy then shared a statement with news.com.au on Wednesday night, saying the backlash she has faced since the accusations first emerged have been 'deeply distressing' both for her and her family.
'The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming,' said the star in a statement, saying that she has faced 'attacks' on social media as a result. 'I have had media outside my home and business, and have been attacked online. It has been deeply distressing for my colleagues and my young family.'
Bellamy went on to insist that she has never copied another baker's recipe, and instead has only ever 'drawn inspiration' for her own creations.
'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.'
She continued: '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.'