RecipeTin Eat's Nagi Maehashi accuses baker Brooke Bellamy of copying famous baker's recipe

Daily Mail​

02-05-2025

Cookbook author and blogger Nagi Maehashi has claimed the late Bill Granger is another author whose work was plagiarised by baker Brooke Bellamy.
Ms Maehashi sparked a firestorm this week when she alleged the former travel blogger-turned-baker copied two of her recipes for caramel slice, and baklava in her book Bake with Brooki.
Ms Bellamy strenuously denied the allegations and made a statement via her lawyers.
'I do not copy other people's recipes,' she said.
'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.'
Speaking with Good Food, Ms Maehashi confirmed social media rumours that Bake with Brooki may have copied a Portuguese tart recipe from Granger's book Every Day, which was published in 2006.
'It is so blatant to me that the wording in the method part of the recipe is copied almost exactly. To me, it is the biggest and strongest example of plagiarism that I have seen by this author,' Ms Maehashi said.
'I was so shocked when I saw it. Bill is an icon of the Australian food scene. When I became aware of it, I knew that including it in my statement would make it stronger, but I left it out at the request of Bill's family.'
Publishing director of Murdoch Books Jane Morrow released a statement that read: 'We are aware of the allegations of plagiarism involving the uncredited use of a recipe by Bill Granger. We take any suggestion that his work has been reproduced without acknowledgement seriously. We are currently reviewing the concerns raised.'
American-based baker Sally McKenney also alleged that Ms Bellamy used her vanilla cake recipe after Ms Maehashi told her about the scandal.
Ms Maehashi said she went public with the allegations because she wanted people 'to take responsibility for their actions and to remind influencers and publishers that stealing work is not okay'.
But she still sympathised with Ms Bellamy after the swell of criticism she'd received online.
Ms Maehashi said on Instagram on Thursday: 'I made the statement knowing that it would come with a barrage of hate against me, and social media did not let me down. I'm asking you to stop the personal attacks against Brooke Bellamy. That's not the way to speak your mind and that's not the kind of support I want.'
Ms Maehashi told Penguin Books months ago about the resemblances between two of her recipes, along with Granger's, in Bake with Brooki.
Penguin denied the allegations, saying via their lawyers: 'Our client respectfully rejects your client's allegations and confirms that the recipes in [Bake with Brooki] were written by Brooke Bellamy', according to Maehashi.
It's hard to prove recipe plagiarism, particularly when recipes like baklava, caramel slice and Portuguese custard tarts are varieties of recipes that have been tweaked many times over the years.
Award-winning chef and restaurateur Luke Mangan turned the tables and accused RecipeTin Eats of not crediting him properly for one of his dishes.
He said that while Ms Maehashi did provide a footnote credit to him for a butter chicken recipe she had used online and in her book, she should have got in touch to say she was using it, and added a link to his website.
'I couldn't say off the top of my head whether she did reach out and ask permission or not, but I would have thought, in general, you would contact the person whose recipe it was,' he said.
'All of my recipes in my (seven) books are copyrighted, we own them, they are our intellectual property.'
Ms Maehashi's website, RecipeTin Eats, has 1.5million followers on Instagram and she has also authored award-winning cookbooks Dinner and Tonight.
Ms Bellamy quickly became a global sensation after sharing videos on TikTok, which receive millions of views every day.
She is best known for her cookies and has opened pop-up stores in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Ms Maehashi said she wasn't across copyright infringement, but hired a lawyer specialising in intellectual property.
Ms Bellamy said in her statement via her lawyers: '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,' she said.
The Brisbane-based Brooki Bakehouse owner was due to be announced as an ambassador for the Academy for Enterprising Girls, which is an initiative designed to help students think like an entrepreneur and start their own business one day.
But she was dumped as the ambassador following plagiarism claims.
'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 Daily Mail Australia.
'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.'
It is not suggested that the accusations of plagiarism against Bellamy are true, only that they have been made