‘Please stop': Nagi Maehashi makes surprising statement amid ongoing Brooke Bellamy drama

News.com.au

01-05-2025

Australian cook Nagi Maehashi has taken to social media to make a surprising statement amid her public dispute with baker Brooke Bellamy and publisher Penguin.
Earlier this week, Maehashi sparked controversy online after she accused Bellamy of copying two recipes – one for caramel slice, one for baklava – in her best-selling book.
Sally McKenney, a famed US baker who blogs under @sallysbakeblog and boasts 1 million followers on Instagram, then claimed that a cake recipe from a book she had published in 2019 was remarkably similar to a recipe used by Bellamy in Bakes with Brooki – a cookbook that has since racked up an estimated $4.6 million in sales.
Bellamy, who has denied the claims from both Maehashi and McKenney, hasn't been seen in public since the accusations were made, and has faced backlash on social media.
In an impassioned message to followers on Thursday evening, Maehashi addressed social media trolls and urged them to stop 'personal attacks' on Bellamy.
'Please stop the trolling,' she said on Instagram. 'Now I've made serious allegations. But that does not justify the personal attacks that I've seen online against Brooke Bellamy. I do not support it. I'm asking you to stop.'
She said that she wants her followers to be nothing but 'respectful' toward Bellamy, regardless of their ongoing disagreement.
'I know that this is just a small percentage and I now the majority of people are normal people. Share your opinions, have heated opinions, support Brookey, support me, do whatever you want. But keep it respectively. No trolling, no hateful comments. This is a business dispute. These are allegations I have made against Penguin, made by my company. We've got to be respectful about this.'
Maehashi's public statement comes just a day after Bellamy addressed the 'attacks' she had faced on social media in recent days.
'The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming,' said the star in a statement on Wednesday. '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 and her publishing house, Penguin Books, have vehemently denied Maehashi's claims.
In her original statement earlier this week, Bellamy said that going forward the two recipes Maehashi called out would be pulled from its future reprints.
'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,' Bellamy wrote in a statement on Instagram.
'I immediately offered to remove both recipes from future reprints to prevent further aggravation, which was communicated to Nagi swiftly through discussions.
'I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done for cooks content creators and cookbooks in Australia.'