Brooke Bellamy and RecipeTin Eats founder set for awkward showdown as another twist emerges in cookbook ‘plagiarism’ scandal

Feuding celebrity cooks Nagi Maehashi and Brooke Bellamy will go head-to-head at a prestigious book awards ceremony this week following heated plagiarism allegations.

The 2025 Australian Book Industry Awards, held at Zinc Fed Square in Melbourne on Wednesday, will hand out 23 accolades in a range of categories. 

Food blogger and author Maehashi received a nomination for Illustrated Book of the Year for her cookbook RecipeTin Eats: Tonight. 

Brisbane baker and social media sensation Brooke Bellamy is nominated for the same award for her own cookbook Bake with Brooki, which Maehashi claims contains plagiarised recipes.

Maehashi sparked a firestorm last week when she claimed the former travel blogger-turned-baker copied her caramel slice and baklava recipes.

The RecipeTin Eats founder made the first accusation on April 29, sharing a lengthy blog post to her website and a series of slides to her Instagram account. 

Maehashi said she first raised concerns with Penguin publishing in December after a reader emailed her highlighting ‘remarkable similarities’ between her caramel slice recipe and the version in the newly released Bake with Brooki.

‘I put a huge amount of effort into my recipes. And I share them on my website for anyone to use for free,’ Maehashi wrote. 

RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi (pictured) sparked a firestorm when she claimed the former travel blogger-turned-baker Brooke Bellamy copied two of her recipies

Brooke Bellamy (pictured) has denied the allegations, claiming she has been making the recipes years before Maehashi

‘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.

‘To me, the similarities between the recipes in question are so specific and detailed that calling these a coincidence feels disingenuous.’

Maehashi added that profiting from plagiarised recipes was ‘unethical’. 

‘It’s a slap in the face to every author who puts in the hard work to create original content rather than cutting corners,’ she wrote.

Maehashi also claimed Bellamy plagiarised other authors, which she did not name. 

However, hours after the allegations first surfaced, US baker Sally McKenney of Sally’s Baking Addiction fame claimed on Instagram that Bellamy had also copied her vanilla cake recipe. 

Two days later, Maehashi claimed Bellamy may have copied ‘virtually word for word’ the recipe for Portuguese tart from the late Bill Granger’s 2006 cookbook.

‘It is so blatant to me that the wording in the method part of the recipe is copied almost exactly,’ Maehashi told East Coast Media. 

Maehashi received a nomination for Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2025 Australian Book Industry Awards in Melbourne for her cookbook RecipeTin Eats: Tonight 

Bellamy is nominated for the same award for her own cookbook Bake with Brooki, which Maehashi claims contains plagiarised recipes 

‘To me, it is the biggest and strongest example of plagiarism that I have seen by this author.’  

Both Penguin and Bellamy denied the allegations, with the baker saying she had been making and selling her recipes years before Maehashi’s were published.

‘I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years,’ Bellamy said.

‘In 2016, I opened my first bakery. I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since October 2016.’

Bellamy added that she was deeply distressed by the allegations and for being attacked online by social media trolls. 

‘I do not copy other people’s recipes,’ Bellamy said. 

‘Like many bakers, I draw inspiration from the classics, but the creations you see at (her Brisbane bakery) 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.’ 

While the Brisbane baker insisted she did not copy the recipes, she ‘immediately offered to remove both from future reprints to prevent further aggravation’. 

The RecipeTin Eats founder levelled the accusations on April 29 in a lengthy blog post on her website, which included a side-by-side comparison of the two recipes

Bellamy has since hunkered down at her Brisbane home and issued a plea for privacy as she closed her personal Instagram account to the public after savage attacks by trolls.

‘The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming,’ she said in a statement last week.

‘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.

‘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.’

Maehashi also pleaded with social media users, fans and supporters to leave Bellamy alone in a video shared to Instagram.

‘Please stop the trolling,’ Maehashi said.

The ugly food row has since seen Bellamy dropped as an ambassador for the federal initiative Academy for Enterprising Girls

‘Now I know I’ve made serious allegations, but this does not justify the personal attacks that I’ve seen online against Brooke Bellamy.

‘I do not support it, and I’m asking you to stop. I know that this is just a very, very small percentage of people online. I know the majority of people are good, fun, normal people.

‘You know, share your opinions, have heated debates, support Brooki, support me, disagree with both of us, think we’re pathetic, whatever you want, but just keep it respectful, no trolling, no hateful comments.’

Maehashi said Penguin denied the allegations, saying via lawyers: ‘Our client respectfully rejects your client’s allegations and confirms that the recipes in [Bake with Brooki] were written by Brooke Bellamy.’ 

The ugly food row saw Bellamy dropped as an ambassador for the federal initiative Academy for Enterprising Girls. 

Meanwhile, Maehashi also faced criticism from celebrity chef Luke Mangan who said she had failed to credit him properly for a recipe she used in one of her cookbooks.

RecipeTin Eats has 1.5million followers on Instagram and Maehashi has also authored award-winning cookbooks Dinner and Tonight.

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.

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