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

Cookbook author and blogger Nagi Maehashi claims baker Brooke Bellamy may have also plagiarised a recipe by the late Bill Granger. 

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.

Brisbane-based 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, Sydney-based 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,’ 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.’

Cookbook author Nagi Maehashi has claimed Bill Granger is another author whose work was plagiarised by Brooke Bellamy

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 Bellamy used her vanilla cake recipe after Maehashi told her about the scandal.

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 Bellamy after the swell of criticism she’d received online.

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.’

Maehashi said she 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.

Baker Brooke Bellamy has denined she copied other recipes 

Award-winning chef and restaurateur Luke Mangan turned the tables and accused Maehashi, the founder of wildly popular blog RecipeTin Eats, of not crediting him properly for one of his dishes.

He said that while 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.’

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.

Ms Maehashi said she wasn’t across copyright infringement, but hired a lawyer specialising in intellectual property.

It is not suggested that the accusations of plagiarism against Ms Bellamy are true, only that they have been made. 

Brooke Bellamy owns the popular Brooki Bakehouse in Brisbane

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk