Latest news with #AcademyforEnterprisingGirls
ABC News
01-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Brooke Bellamy dropped as girls' entrepreneur program ambassador after RecipeTin Eats plagiarism allegations
Influencer baker Brooke Bellamy has been dropped as an ambassador for a federally funded program to teach girls to "think like an entrepreneur" after cookbook author Nagi Maehashi accused her of plagiarism. Maehashi alleged Bellamy's cookbook plagiarised two of her recipes, which Bellamy has denied. The Bake with Brooki author was lined up as an ambassador for the Academy for Enterprising Girls, which runs design and career workshops and online classes for girls to develop the skills to start their own business. Photo shows Two copies of the Bake with Brooki cookbook. Can you own a recipe? And what are the protocols if you take inspiration from another cookbook author's work? The ABC understands the ambassadorship was a "small value one" that came in at under $10,000. Only half had been paid. In a statement, the academy said Bellamy had been "engaged to conduct a small number of promotional activities" over the coming months. The role had not yet begun. "While we make no legal assessment on the allegations aired in the media, we have informed Ms Bellamy that we will not move forward with the engagement at this time," it read. 'I do not copy other people's recipes' Bellamy released a second statement on Wednesday, saying the situation had become "extremely overwhelming", and "I do not copy other people's recipes". "While baking has leeway for creativity, much of it is a precise science and is necessarily formulaic," she wrote. " Many recipes are bound to share common steps and measures: if they don't, they simply don't work. " Nagi Maehashi says the caramel slice recipe in Bake with Brooki (right) is similar to her own (left). ( Supplied: RecipeTin Eats ) On Thursday, Maehashi posted she had not made the statement "lightly" and didn't know "it would open the floodgates to haters". "I have nothing to gain out of speaking up except that I believe it's the right thing to do," she said. Bellamy has three bakeries in Brisbane, including one at Brisbane Airport. Bellamy has three bakeries in Brisbane. ( ABC News: Eddie Gill ) On Tuesday, Maehashi posted that the similarities between her caramel slice and baklava recipes, and the ones published in Bake with Brooki, were a "slap in the face to every author who puts in the hard work to create original content". In an earlier statement, Bellamy said she had been making and selling that caramel slice for four years before Maehashi posted the recipe in 2020. Books by both authors are shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Perth Now
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Recipe wars: Brooke Bellamy dumped as more plagiarism allegations emerge after RecipeTin Eats claims
The recipe wars threatening to tear apart Australia's food community have escalated with more cooks coming out to allege plagiarism and one of Australia's most well-known bakers being dumped as an ambassador. The issue erupted on Tuesday when RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi claimed Bake with Brooki's Brooke Bellamy had infringed her copyright by 'word-for-word' taking two of her recipes, including caramel slice, and using them in her latest best-selling book, Bake with Brooki. Maehashi also alleged that baking queen Bellamy had taken recipes from other authors: 'including (from) a very well known, beloved cookbook author where the similarities are so extensive, dismissing it as a coincidence would be absurd.' Maehashi doubled down on her claims in another Instagram post on Thursday that showed a side-by-side comparison of her caramel slice and Bellamy's. Another food blogger has gone public to allege Bellamy had stolen one of her recipes, too. US food blogger Sally McKenney, who founded Sally's Baking Addiction, claimed Bellamy had taken her best vanilla cake recipe. 'Nagi ... I'm so grateful you let me know months ago that one of my recipes — the best vanilla cake I've ever had, published by me in 2019 — was also plagiarised in this book and also appears on the author's YouTube channel,' McKenney said in an Instagram story. 'Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit — especially in a best-selling cookbook.' Camera Icon Nagi Maehashi, whose RecipeTin Eats website is one of Australia's most beloved recipe sites. Credit: Instagram Bellamy, who has more than a million followers online, has denied plagiarising any recipes. She said she had been making the recipes at the centre of Maehashi's allegations — for caramel slice and baklava — for years before Maehashi published her takes on the favourites. 'I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years, since falling in love with baking as a child and growing up baking with my mum in our home kitchen. She said she had offered to remove both of Maehashi's recipes from future reprints to prevent 'further aggravation'. Adding to the drama, it has been revealed that Bellamy has now been dumped as an ambassador for the federally funded Academy for Enterprising Girls. '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 Daily Telegraph. '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.' Published by Penguin Random House, Bake with Brooki, which retails for nearly $50 a book, sold 92,849 copies in less than six months, equating to $4.6m in sales. Camera Icon Brooke Bellamy says she has been attacked online amid claims of stolen recipes. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP An analysis of a YouTube video by Bellamy outlining the recipe and McKenney's published version by 7NEWS showed Bellamy also referring to her cake as 'the best ever vanilla cake'. Hers uses ingredients that are only slightly different from McKenney's: a 3g difference in the amount of flour used and 5g in butter measurements and three large eggs and two extra egg whites, while Bellamy's requires four eggs. McKenney's recipe also calls for 400g of granulated sugar, where as Bellamy's asks for a finer caster sugar, although the sugars can be substituted. The ingredients are listed in a similar order and both recipes contain the same three-word note — 'Yes, a tablespoon!' — next to the measurement for vanilla extract. In a twist, Ms Maehashi herself has now also come under fire, with celebrity chef Luke Mangan claiming she had not credited him appropriately for one of his recipes. Her book contains the statement that 'the author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book'. '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,' Mangan was quoted as saying in The Courier Mail. 'I wasn't even aware she had used my recipe.' 'She has credited my recipe, but I would have preferred a bigger mention and at least linking people to our website,' he said. On Thursday, Maehashi released another statement on her Instagram page alongside an image of a direct comparison of the directions for caramel slice recipe that shows only small differences. Ms Maehashi said she had not made her plagiarism claims lightly. 'I tried for almost 6 months, going back and forth with Penguin/Brooki. I hired lawyers. 'I also did it knowing it would open the doors floodgates to haters, and no control over what the press will say. 'I have nothing to gain out of speaking up except that I believe it's the right thing to do. 'I do not want their money. I didn't even ask for reimbursement of legal fees.' Camera Icon The caramel slice recipe comparison. Credit: Instagram The issue is expected to come back into the spotlight next week with Maehashi's RecipeTin Eats book and Baking with Brooki both shortlisted at the Australian book industry awards in Melbourne. Bellamy and Penguin Random House have been approached for comment.
News.com.au
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Brooke Bellamy dropped from ambassador role amid copycat cookbook accusations she denies
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.' 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'. 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. 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 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.'
7NEWS
30-04-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Crushing career blow for Brooki Bakehouse's Brooke Bellamy amid devastating plagiarism claims
Brooki Bakehouse owner Brooke Bellamy has been dropped from a high-profile ambassador role in the wake of plagiarism claims by RecipeTin Eats author Nagi Maehashi. Maehashi claims Bellamy reproduced recipes from the RecipeTin Eats website and other authors in her own book, Bake With Brooki. Nagi claimed Bellamy plagiarised her caramel slice recipe. Bellamy was hit by a second accusation by US baker Sally McKenney, of Sally's Baking Addiction, who claimed Bellamy's vanilla cake recipe was extremely similar to her own. Bellamy and Penguin Random House Australia, which published her book, have denied the allegations. Bellamy has been dropped as an Academy for Enterprising Girls ambassador, a role funded by the federal government, The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday. '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 publication. 'While we make no legal assessment on the allegations aired in the media, we have informed Bellamy we will not move forward with the engagement at this time.' On Thursday, legal expert Isabella Alexander appeared on Sunrise to dissect the claims against Bellamy. 'It is possible (to plagiarise a recipe). This might surprise a lot of people but, because it is a literary work, it falls within the literary act,' Alexander said. 'We are not talking about copying a cake itself or a slice itself or the idea of cooking a slice, but it is the actual words on the page that explain what the ingredient are and how you cook. 'That could be potentially protected by copyright law.' Alexander explained these are very difficult cases to prosecute. 'My first legal thought is how difficult these cases are (to prove in court). As mentioned before, it is really difficult to do a new recipe of a classic dish,' Alexander said. 'If you are going to make a caramel slice it has to have certain ingredients and, to work, they have to be in similar proportions. 'Copyright protects the author's independent expression and it is hard to do that with a list of ingredients. 'It is more in the instructions. That is where the author can put their twist on the recipe. 'Some recipes are easy to follow and some are not so much. That is where you would be looking for the similarities. 'But, they would have to have a lot of similarities in a case like this.' Alexander explained the difference between plagiarism and copyright. 'Plagiarism is different to copyright. Plagiarism is just copying someone's idea without giving them credit for it. But copyright law has a lot more specificity because it is a legal action. 'You need to prove that you created the recipe yourself. That it is an original work and that the person who copied it, copied the entirety of the recipe or a substantial part of it. 'And the part that they copied is the intellectual contribution that you, as the author, brought to it. 'These cases are hard to prove and very expensive to bring, so that is why you don't see very many of them.'
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Crushing blow for cookie queen Brooke Bellamy as she's stripped of ambassador role in the wake of allegations she plagiarsed recipes from iconic celebrity chef - as the saga takes yet another bizarre twist
Social media baking sensation Brooke Bellamy has been dumped as an ambassador for a program for young girls in business following plagiarism claims. The federal government funded program cut ties with the Brooki Bakehouse owner after RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi accused her of stealing recipes for her bestselling cookbook Bake With Brooki. A fresh twist to the plagiarism row emerged on Wednesday night when award-winning chef/restauranteur Luke Mangan accused Ms Maehashi of not crediting him appropriately for one of his recipes. Celebrity cook Ms Maehashi first raised explosive allegations about the copyright infringement on Tuesday before Sally McKenney, the US author and blogger behind Sally's Baking Addiction, came forward with similar claims about Ms Bellamy hours later. Ms Bellamy has denied the accusations, saying she had been making and selling her recipes well before Ms Maehashi's were published. The Brisbane-based Brooki Bakehouse owner was due to be named an ambassador for the Academy for Enterprising Girls. '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 Daily Telegraph. '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.' RecipeTin Eats' Nagi Maehashi accused Ms Bellamy of stealing her caramel slice and baklava recipes Ms Maehashi herself has since come under fire by Mr Mangan, who accused her of not crediting him appropriately for a butter chicken recipe she had used online and in her book. '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. Mr Mangan claimed that he hadn't been aware Ms Maehashi had used his recipe. He noted she had credited him but he would have preferred a link to his website. Ms Maehashi adapted Mr Mangan's butter chicken recipe - adding salt and a low-fat cream option - and referenced the chef in a footnote online. Mr Mangan wasn't mentioned in the print copy but it did feature a QR code linking to the online credited version. Ms Maehashi's book includes the statement 'the author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book'. Mr Mangan and Ms Maehashi were contacted by Daily Mail Australia for comment. The plagiarism row erupted on Tuesday when Ms Maehashi posted a series of claims that Ms Bellamy had copied recipes for her million-dollar book Bake With Brooki. The allegations relate to Ms Maehashi's caramel slice and baklava recipe, along with Ms McKenney's Best Vanilla Cake recipe. Ms McKenney posted on social media, saying she was first alerted to the similarity months ago. She said her recipe was first published in 2019. 'One of my recipes was also plagiarised in this book and also appears on the author's YouTube channel,' she said. 'Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit - especially in a best selling cookbook.' Ms Bellamy has issued a public plea for privacy in the wake of the fresh claims made by Ms McKenney on Wednesday. 'The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming,' a statement read. 'II 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. '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.' Bake With Brooki is a bestselling cookbook published by Penguin in October last year and retails for $49.99. Ms Bellamy quickly became a global sensation after sharing videos on TikTok, which receive millions of views each day. She is best known for her cookies and has opened pop-up stores in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Both Penguin and Ms Bellamy deny the allegations. 'I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years,' Ms Bellamy said on Tuesday night. 'In 2016, I opened my first bakery. I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since October 2016.' Ms Bellamy posted an image showing her caramel slice, which dated back to December, 2016. '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,' she said. While the Brisbane baker insisted she did not copy the recipes, she 'immediately offered' to remove both from future reprints to prevent further aggravation'. In Ms Maehashi's Instagram post, she described Ms Bellamy of 'profiting' from the alleged plagiarised recipes. Ms Maehashi claims she first raised concerns with Penguin in December. 'I put a huge amount of effort into my recipes. And I share them on my website for anyone to use for free,' she said. 'To see them plagiarised (in my view) and used in a book for profit, without credit, doesn't just feel unfair. It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work.' Ms Maehashi is the founder of popular website, RecipeTin Eats, which has 1.5 million followers on Instagram. She is also the author of award-winning cookbooks Dinner and Tonight. The oven gloves are off in a war of words between two of Australia's baking queens - as allegations of plagiarism bring their recipes under scrutiny. Nagi Maehashi, the best-selling author, food blogger and founder of RecipeTin Eats, alleged on Tuesday that baking influencer Brooke Bellamy had plagiarised recipes in her cook book Bake with Brooki - a claim Ms Bellamy and her publisher have denied. It comes after both Ms Maehashi and Ms Bellamy enjoyed a meteoric rise in the food blogging space. Ms Maehashi was born in Japan but grew up in Sydney. She is a former financier at Brookfield Multiplex and PwC who pivoted to food blogging in 2014. Ms Maehashi's cookbooks with Pan Macmillan Australia have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, won industry awards and smashed nonfiction sales records. Her wildly popular website RecipeTin Eats, and a Sydney food bank feeding the city's vulnerable, have only raised her profile further. The 47-year-old's savvy business practice has afforded her a luxury lifestyle that includes a $7million Victorian manor in Hunters Hill, northwest Sydney. Her new adversary Brooke Bellamy, nee Saward, also turned to baking later in life. Brooke Bellamy, nee Saward (pictured), is a former travel influencer who ran a blog called World of Wanderlust and published a book by the same name in 2016 Ms Bellamy is a former travel influencer who ran a blog called World of Wanderlust and published a book by the same name in 2016. That year, the 33-year-old returned home to Tasmania and started successful cafe Charlie's Dessert House, which is now owned and operated by her parents. In 2021, Ms Bellamy moved to Brisbane with her then-boyfriend, landscape architect Justice Bellamy, and started the bakery Brooki Bakehouse. Her now husband, Mr Bellamy, hails from the family behind a famous food empire. He grew up on the family farm where infant formula company Bellamy's Organic was founded by his parents, David Bellamy and Dooley Crighton-Bellamy, before it was acquired by a Chinese dairy giant for $1.5million. In Brisbane, Mr Bellamy has been acting as a co-director of Brooki Bakehouse with his wife. The business has garnered a massive social media following off the back of TikTok videos of Ms Bellamy at work in the shop. But it's the debut cook book Ms Bellamy published with Penguin last year, Bake with Brooki, that her rival Ms Maehashi has taken issue with. Ms Maehashi, who will famously bake dozens of iterations of a treat before putting a recipe online, claims the recipes for Caramel Slice and Baklava in Ms Bellamy's cook book are nearly identical to the ones she has posted on RecipeTin Eats. Ms Maehashi will famously bake dozens of iterations of a treat before putting a recipe online Ms Maehashi claims the recipes for Caramel Slice and Baklava in Ms Bellamy's cook book are nearly identical to her own Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Ms Maehashi's claims are true. 'To me, the similarities are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous,' she wrote on social media on Tuesday. '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). 'I'm speaking up because staying silent protects this kind if behaviour.' Ms Bellamy denied the claims, saying on Instagram: 'I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years.' She said she had been making and selling her caramel slice since 2016, whereas RecipeTin Eats published its recipe for the slice in 2020. Ms Bellamy added she had 'immediately offered to remove both recipes from future reprints to prevent further aggravation'. 'I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done in recent years for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in Australia - especially as a fellow female entrepreneur.' 'To me, the similarities are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous,' Ms Maehashi wrote on social media Ms Maehashi explained that out of respect for the other authors, she has chosen not to name them or share further details of the allegedly plagiarised recipes. But a second baker did come forward to echo Ms Maehashi's plagiarism claims just hours after she posted her statement. US-based baker Sally McKenney claimed on Instagram that Ms Bellamy had also copied her Vanilla Cake recipe. Ms Maehashi had reached out to her to let her know. 'Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit – especially in a best-selling cookbook,' Ms McKenney said. Penguin has also 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 Ms Maehashi.
