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Martha Stewart has weighed in on the RecipeTin Eats plagiarism scandal after Brooke Bellamy was accused of copying the recipes of fellow Australian cook Nagi Maehashi.
The celebrity chef, 83, said during her live event at Sydney’s ICC on Wednesday night that it was difficult to prove a recipe had been copied.
‘I have so many recipes and it’s hard to develop a recipe without having a repertoire behind it,’ she told the audience.
‘I don’t think too many recipes are owned by anybody, they are handed down, used and changed.’
However, Martha claimed that it can be considered plagiarism if a recipe is ‘copied word for word’.
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Martha Stewart (pictured) has weighed in on the RecipeTin Eats plagiarism scandal after Brooke Bellamy was accused of copying the recipes of fellow Australian cook Nagi Maehashi
‘If you print somebody else’s recipe word for word in your own cookbook then it might be plagiarism but I think it’s very hard to prove who actually came up with that recipe,’ she said.
‘So unless they are word for word, you can’t say they’re yours.’
It comes after a second author accused social media cooking sensation Brooke of stealing recipes for her bestselling cookbook Bake With Brooki.
Hours after RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi raised allegations of copyright infringement last month, Sally McKenney, the US author and blogger behind Sally’s Baking Addiction, made similar claims.
Bellamy, who owns the popular Brooki Bakehouse in Brisbane, denied the accusations, saying she had been making and selling her recipes well before Maehashi’s were published.
The allegations relate to Maehashi’s caramel slice and baklava recipe, along with McKenney’s Best Vanilla Cake recipe.
McKenney posted her claims on social media, saying she was first alerted to the similarity months ago.
She said her recipe was first published in 2019.
Brooke (pictured) was accused of copying the recipes of fellow Australian cook Nagi Maehashi in her popular book, Bake With Brooki. She has denied the allegations
Martha said during her live event at Sydney ‘s ICC on Wednesday night that it is hard to prove a recipe is copied. Pictured Nagi Maehashi
‘One of my recipes was also plagiarised in this book and also appears on the author’s YouTube channel,’ she said.
‘Original recipe creators who put in the work to develop and test recipes deserve credit – especially in a best selling cookbook.’
Bake With Brooki is a bestselling cookbook published by Penguin in October last year and retails for $49.99.
Bellamy quickly became a global sensation after sharing videos on TikTok, which receive millions of views each day.
She is best known for her cookies and has opened pop-up stores in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Both Penguin and Bellamy deny the allegations.
‘I did not plagiarise any recipes in my book which consists of 100 recipes I have created over many years,’ she said.
‘In 2016, I opened my first bakery. I have been creating my recipes and selling them commercially since October 2016.’
Author Sally McKenney (above) also accused Brooke of stealing her Vanilla Cake recipe
Bellamy posted an image showing her caramel slice, which dated back to December, 2016.
‘On March 2020, RecipeTin Eats published a recipe for caramel slice. It uses the same ingredients as my recipe, which I have been making and selling since four years prior,’ she said.
While the Brisbane baker insisted she did not copy the recipes, she ‘immediately offered’ to remove both from future reprints to prevent further aggravation’.
In Maehashi’s Instagram post, she described Bellamy of ‘profiting’ from the alleged plagiarised recipes.
Maehashi claims she first raised concerns with Penguin in December.
‘I put a huge amount of effort into my recipes. And I share them on my website for anyone to use for free,’ she said.
‘To see them plagiarised (in my view) and used in a book for profit, without credit, doesn’t just feel unfair. It feels like a blatant exploitation of my work.’
Maehashi is the founder of popular website, RecipeTin Eats, which has 1.5 million followers on Instagram.
She is also the author of award-winning cookbooks Dinner and Tonight.
