The Australian author and food blogger behind RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi, has made copyright infringement allegations against Penguin Random House claiming there are plagiarised recipes in Brooke Bellamy’s best-selling book, Bake with Brooki. Here’s what you need to know.
Key Takeaways
- Nagi Maehashi, founder of RecipeTin Eats, has released a statement alleging Brooke Bellamy plagiarised her Caramel Slice recipe in her best-selling cookbook, Bake with Brooki.
- Maehashi released a comparison of extracts of her recipe, published in 2020, and the version in Bake with Brooki, released in 2024. She claims the similarities are “far too strong to be a coincidence”.
- Maehashi has engaged lawyer Adam Simpson to pursue Penguin Random House, but the publishing house and Bellamy have denied Maehashi’s allegations.
- Forbes Australia do not suggest that plagiarism has taken place, only that the claims have been made.
Key background
Maehashi founded RecipeTin Eats as a cooking blog back in 2014, and published her first cookbook in October 2022. In that time, Maehashi, who became a household name for simple, affordable meals, has grown her social following to 4.6 million, with her website attracting around 35 million eyeballs each month.
Bellamy made her cookbook debut in October last year with Bake with Brooki, which became the country’s third-highest-selling cookbook. It has generated $4.6 million worth of sales (92,849 copies at $50 a pop) in Australia alone in less than six months.
What we know
So far, we know Maehashi’s allegations – and that Bellamy and Penguin Random House deny them. Maehashi says that in November 2024, a reader emailed her after noticing “remarkable similarities” between her Caramel Slice recipe, and a version in Bake with Brooki’s newly-released cookbook.
“I wrote to Penguin immediately, with my first letter sent on 4 December 2024,” Maehashi says in a statement. “Disappointingly, instead of engaging in civil discussions with me, Penguin brought in lawyers and resorted to what felt to me legal intimidation – letters in stern, aggressive tones packed with pages of legal jargon that I struggled to make sense of.”
Maehashi says this feels like “exploitation” – particularly as the income from her website funds her foodbank, RecipeTin Meals, which brought in $1.1 million in revenue for the 2024 financial year. (It has produced over 300,000 meals since 2021, with an average of over 500 meals per day). US food blogger Sally McKenny has since also claimed Bellamy’s vanilla cake recipe has been plagiarised.
According to the Australian Copyright Council, the articulation of a recipe can be copyright protected once it is recorded as it is then defined as a literary work. But the author does not have copyright rights over ingredients, methods or techniques, which can make it difficult to prove.
Crucial quote
“Our client respectfully rejects your clients’ allegations and confirms that the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy.” That’s Penguin’s stance.
Bellamy took to her Instagram stories to deny the allegations, saying while she has drawn inspiration from the food community, she has been creating her recipes and selling them commercially since 2016.
“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.
