‘Attacked’: Brooke Bellamy shares emotional response denying copycat cookbook accusations
Aussie celebrity cook Brooke Bellamy has released an emotional statement addressing the fresh copycat claims she’s now facing.
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Brooke Bellamy has broken her silence after facing further copycat accusations regarding one of her latest cookbooks.
One day after the popular TikTok star and bakery owner was accused by fellow author and cook Nagi Maehashi of plagiarising two recipes in her best-selling book, Bake with Brooki, another cookbook author came forward with fresh copycat claims.
Just hours after the fresh claims emerged, Bellamy shared a statement where she revealed that the backlash she has faced since the accusations first emerged have been “deeply distressing” both for her and her family.
“The past 24 hours have been extremely overwhelming,” said the star in a statement, saying that she has faced “attacks” on social media as a result. “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.”
Bellamy went on to insist that she has never copied another baker’s recipe, and instead has only ever “drawn inspiration” for her own creations.
“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.”
She continued: “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.”
Bellamy’s statement comes hours after Sally McKenney, a famed US baker who blogs under @sallysbakeblog and boasts 1 million followers on Instagram, claimed that a cake recipe from a book she had published in 2019 was used by Bellamy in Bake with Brooki – a cookbook that has since racked up an estimated $4.6 million in sales.
McKenney revealed in an Instagram Story that it was Maehashi who alerted her to the alleged plagiarism months ago, and she was coming forward now to stand in solidarity with Maehashi.
“Nagi, you know how much I admire and support you – and I’m so grateful you let me know months ago that one of my recipes (The Best Vanilla Cake I’ve Ever Had, published by me in 2019) was also plagiarised in this book and also appears on the author’s YouTube channel,” McKenney wrote alongside a photo of her creation.
“Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit – especially in a best-selling cookbook.”
News.com.au has reached out to Maehashi and Bellamy for comment. We also reached out to McKenney, who politely declined to comment.
When Maehashi accused Bellamy of plagiarising her caramel slice and baklava recipes from her site RecipeTin Eats, she claimed that other authors were also allegedly ripped off by Bellamy.
“I’m no stranger to seeing my recipes copied online,” Maehashi wrote in a post on Instagram and on her website. “But seeing what I believe to be my recipes and my words printed in a multimillion-dollar book launched with a huge publicity campaign from one of Australia’s biggest publishers was shocking.”
“There are also recipes from other authors, including from a very well known, beloved cookbook author where the similarities are so extensive, dismissing it as coincidence would be absurd (in my opinion),” Maehashi wrote in her post addressed to Bellamy and her publisher Penguin Books.
“Out of respect for and at the request of authors, I cannot share further details.”
However, the RecipeTin Eats founder appreciated McKenney coming forward and offering her support, writing in a follow-up post: “Yes, Sally is one of the authors I reached out to. I recognised her vanilla cake because I’ve made it and it’s unique (it uses buttermilk). I’m sorry Sally. I know how hard you work on recipes too and this is one of her signature famous recipes. You’re such a baking nerd – and you know I love it.”
“For those who don’t know, Sally is one of the most well known and popular baking websites in the world, probably THE most well known in the US. If I don’t have a particular baking recipe, I send people to her because I know her recipes work. I’ve followed her for a decade.”
Bellamy has emerged as somewhat of a competitor to Maehashi in recent months as the bakery owner continued to find fame on social media.
Last year, Maehashi’s own book Tonight was locked in a battle for the Christmas number one spot with Bake With Brooki.
Bellamy – who opened her Brooki Bakehouse in Brisbane in 2022 – responded to Maehashi’s allegations via a statement released on Instagram on Tuesday.
“I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book,” the embattled cook began in her statement. “I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since 2016. On March 2020, RecipeTin published a recipe for a caramel slice. It uses the same ingredients as my recipe, which I have been making and selling since four years prior.”
Bellamy went on to allege that she “immediately” offered to remove the recipes from future copies of her book to prevent “further aggravation”, which she claims was communicated to Maehashi.
“I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in Australia.
“Recipe development in today’s world is enveloped in inspiration from other cooks, cookbook authors and food bloggers and content creators. The willingness to share recipes and build on what has come before is what I love so much about baking and sharing recipes.”
Penguin has also denied the claims in a statement sent by their lawyers to Maehashi’s lawyer, which reads: “Our client respectfully rejects your clients’ allegations and confirms that the recipes in the BWB Book were written by Brooke Bellamy.”
On early Wednesday morning, Bellamy’s husband, Justice, was seen at their Brisbane bakery in Fortitude Valley.
The Courier Mail approached him for comment and he said his wife would not be making an appearance. He declined to comment any further about the allegations, but thanked the community for their support.
The incident has since imploded online leading to comments both for and against both women.
Cookbook author Adam Liaw, who has a background in intellectual property law, has also weighed in on the saga, telling the Sydney Morning Herald that copyright “doesn’t protect the recipe itself. It protects the publication of the exact same written form of that recipe. None of the recipes written in the world would reach the standards necessary to obtain patent protection.”
The MasterChef winner said, “There’s the legal side and there’s what is accepted within any creative discipline.
“There is no Mr Bolognese in Bologna, everything is built on what came before. Food is a collective endeavour.”
Originally published as ‘Attacked’: Brooke Bellamy shares emotional response denying copycat cookbook accusations
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