Before Pastrygate: Creative rivalries fuelled by plagiarism are nothing new
Until last week I didn't know Nagi Maehashi could get mad. I've been a fan of Nagi's vibrant and affable cookery for years. Yes, I'm obliged to declare that she writes recipes for this masthead. But I found her stuff delicious long before she started doing that.
To judge from the photos in her cookbooks, Dinner and Tonight, Nagi is never unhappy. She's always smiling at a minimum, if not beaming. She has a dog called Dozer who always seems to be smiling too.
Last week, however, Nagi's world was sullied by an unprecedented whiff of beef. On her website, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi levelled a serious allegation against another celebrity chef, Brooke Bellamy, author of the cookbook Bake with Brooki. According to Nagi, two recipes in that book – one for caramel slice and one for baklava – were stolen from RecipeTin Eats.
'Profiting from plagiarised recipes is unethical,' Nagi wrote, 'and it's a slap in the face to every author who puts in the hard work to create original content.'
For her part, Bellamy denies plagiarising either recipe. But to 'prevent further aggravation,' she has promised to remove them both from future editions of her book.
More allegations of plagiarism have followed, including a claim that Brooki purloined her recipe for Portuguese tarts from the late Bill Granger. This masthead does not suggest that any of the allegations are true, only that they have been made.
Anyway, you sense this affair isn't yet done. For the moment I suggest we call it 'Pastrygate', reserving the option to go with 'Sticky Dategate' if Brooki is ever accused of plagiarising a pudding.
The word plagiarist comes from the Latin plagiarius, meaning kidnapper. When we call someone a plagiarist, we're not just accusing them of theft. We're saying they've made off with someone else's cherished offspring.
All artists, good and bad, are influenced by the work of their forerunners. Good artists absorb the work of their mentors, then try to outdo them.
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