Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →In May 2025, RecipeTin Eats author Nagi Maehashi publicly alleged similarities between several recipes in Brooke Bellamy’s cookbook Baking With Brooki and recipes Maehashi had published. Bellamy denied plagiarism. The dispute raised two different questions: what copyright protects in a recipe, and what creators owe one another in credit and originality. The allegations were not established findings, and the available report does not confirm what happened after the anticipated meeting at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
What sparked the recipe-plagiarism debate?
A PerthNow report published on 5 May 2025 described Maehashi’s allegations about recipes in Bellamy’s Baking With Brooki. The recipes named included caramel slice and baklava. The report also recounted an allegation concerning wording in a Portuguese tart recipe attributed to the late Bill Granger, and a separate claim by Sally McKenney about a vanilla cake recipe. These were reported claims, not conclusions from an independent comparison or court ruling. PerthNow’s 5 May 2025 account is the basis for the details here.
Maehashi said she had raised concerns with Penguin months earlier and objected to what she considered detailed similarities without credit. She described the work behind her recipes this way: “I put a huge amount of effort into my recipes. And I share them on my website for anyone to use for free.” That statement explains her concern; it does not establish that a particular recipe was copied.
What did the two authors say?
| Person | Position reported by PerthNow |
|---|---|
| Nagi Maehashi | She alleged that recipes in Bellamy’s book had detailed similarities to recipes she had published and said she had raised concerns with Penguin months earlier. |
| Brooke Bellamy | She denied plagiarism, saying: “I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years.” She also said she had been making and selling recipes commercially since 2016. |
PerthNow reported that Bellamy offered to remove two recipes from future reprints. The report presents each author’s account; neither account is an independent finding about how the recipes were developed. It also said Maehashi asked the public to stop personal attacks on Bellamy.
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Can someone own a recipe?
The report summarized the Australian Copyright Council’s explanation: copyright does not protect an idea, information such as ingredients and quantities, or a style, method, or technique. An original written description of how to make a dish may be protected as a literary work. The Council’s site lists a resource titled “Recipes: Legal Protection,” but this general distinction does not decide whether any specific text in the books infringed copyright. Australian Copyright Council: Recipes: Legal Protection.
That distinction matters because a familiar dish or shared list of ingredients is not, on its own, proof of copying. A comparison of written directions may raise different questions from a comparison of the underlying idea or method. The report did not establish the facts needed to resolve those questions for the recipes it named.
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Why the ethical question differs from the legal one
PerthNow quoted intellectual-property lawyer Dave Stewart of Bennett describing copyright as a poor mechanism for protecting recipes, and framing the controversy as substantially ethical. He said: “There is an absence of novelty that occurs in respect of most recipes.” He also said: “To take recipes from someone and replicate them seems iffy, even if it’s not an issue from a legal perspective or copyright perspective, it just doesn’t smell right.” Those are the lawyer’s opinions as reported, not a legal ruling or advice about these particular books.
Attribution and professional courtesy can matter to cooks and readers even where a shared dish, ingredient combination, or method is not protected by copyright. Conversely, an ethical concern does not itself prove a copyright violation. The debate therefore turns on two separate matters: what expression, if any, is legally protected, and whether a creator has fairly acknowledged another’s work.
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What did “face to face next week” mean?
The headline referred to the anticipated Australian Book Industry Awards the week after the PerthNow report. It said Maehashi’s RecipeTin Eats book and Bellamy’s Baking With Brooki had been shortlisted in the same category, making a meeting possible. The report does not verify that the encounter occurred or establish the award result. It is a snapshot of the dispute as reported on 5 May 2025, not confirmation of a later resolution or of changes to subsequent editions.
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