Melb awards no-show the latest chapter in baking queens’ war
Cookbook authors Brooke Bellamy and Nagi Maehashi were set to face-off at the Melbourne Australian Book Industry Awards on Wednesday night, but one of them failed to rise to the occasion while the other took the spoils.
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The heat went out of a highly-anticipated Melbourne face-off between cookie queen Brooke Bellamy and RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi on Wednesday night when the biscuit baker, who has been accused of plagiarism, failed to show at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
The cooking queens – who have been embroiled in controversy after Bellamy was accused of copying recipes by Maehashi – were expected to cross paths on May 7 as they went head-to-head at the Federation Square awards, with both short-listed in the Illustrated Book of the Year category.
Maehashi has alleged recipes created by her for a caramel slice and baklava had been copied by Brisbane’s Bellamy.
But what was expected to be a spicy meeting between the two feuding-authors ended up being a baker’s delight for one, with Bellamy a no-show and Maehashi named the winner and taking home the spoils.
The two were among six others short-listed for the Illustrated Book of the Year award, a gong previously won by Maehashi in 2023.
Maehashi appeared in high spirits and full of smiles as she arrived in a black sequined dress.
Asked if she thought Bellamy’s book should still even be eligible for the award given the publicly-aired allegations, Maehashi said: “I am not going to make a comment about that tonight”, adding she wanted “to keep it positive” on the all-important awards night.
However, in a possible reference to the feud she also quipped to the crowd “I am sorry I don’t have any cookies”, then quickly changed the dessert reference to “cake”.
The baking feud hit the headlines when Maehashi said she had been alerted to “striking similarities” in Bellamy’s recipes.
“I asked Penguin to withdraw the book containing the (allegedly) plagiarised recipes from sale, either attribute or remove my recipes from future reprints of the book, and to make a substantial donation to a charity in lieu of financial compensation,’’ she said.
Bellamy has denied the copying claims, saying the recipes in her book had been created “over many years while growing up”.
In a further statement, Bellamy said the incident had been “extremely overwhelming”.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
Originally published as Melb awards no-show the latest chapter in baking queens’ war
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