Two renowned cooking books accused the influencer and owner of confectionery Brooke Bellamy to plagiarize recipes in your book Best Seller.
Nagi Maehashi from the Recipetin Eats website, and Sally McKenney creator of Sally’s Baking Addiction, state that several recipes from the book Bake With Brooki, published by Penguin Random House Australia, were copied from his own works. Bellamy, who has two million followers at Tiktok, Denies the accusations .
Maehashi, author of the New York Times bestseller “Recipetin Eats: Dinner”, which has 1.6 million Instagram followers, detailed the accusations on a publication made on his site on Tuesday (29), comparing his versions and Bellamy’s for Caramel Slice and Baklava revenues.
“In my view, the similarities are too specific and detailed to be just coincidence,” he wrote.
“I decided to pronounce because silence only favors this kind of behavior. Profit over plagiarized revenues is unethical – even if it does not infringe copyright – and impairs the credibility of the whole work,” added Maehashi.
“It’s a disrespect for every author who is dedicated to creating original content without seeking shortcuts.”
She also released an excerpt from a letter from Penguin’s lawyers sent to her lawyer, in which the publisher denies that the revenues were plagiarized.
“Our client respectfully rejects the allegations and confirms that the recipes of the book Bake With Brooki were written by Brooke Bellamy,” says the statement, quoted by Maehashi.
Both Maehashi’s new book, “Reipetin Eats: Tonight,” and Bellamy’s “Bake With Brooki” are competing for the Australian Book Industry Awards (Abia) award in 2025.
THE CNN Internacional contacted Maehashi and Penguin Random House Australia for a position.
Sally McKenney supported Maehashi on an Instagram post, a network in which he has one million followers.
“Nagi, you know how much I admire and support your work – and I’m very grateful to have warned me a few months ago that one of my recipes (‘The best vanilla cake I’ve ever eaten’, published by me in 2019) was also plagiarized in the book and appears on the author’s YouTube channel,” he wrote.
“Original recipe breeders, who invest time testing and developing content, deserve recognition – especially when it comes to a book that is among the bestseller,” added McKenney, who preferred not to make statements more statements to CNN International.
In response, Bellamy published a note on Instagram on Tuesday (29), saying he had produced and sold his Caramel Slice four years ago, before Maehashi released his version on the site.
Owner of three units from Brooki Bakehouse Confectionery, Bellamy also sent a statement to CNN International on Wednesday (30), saying that the repercussions of the accusations have been “extremely intense” and “deeply distressing”.
“I do not copy recipes from other people. Like many confectioners, I get inspired by classics, but the creations you see at Brooki Bakehouse reflect my experience, my taste buds and passion for confectionery – something that was born in childhood, in the kitchen with my mother,” he said.
“Although confectionery allows some creativity, it is also a precise science and so it follows formulas. It is natural that many recipes share similar steps and measures – otherwise they just do not work,” added Bellamy.
Maehashi acknowledged that, from a legal point of view, it is difficult to contest this type of case.
“The copyright law protects creative expression, not functional facts or instructions. You can’t register the idea of ’a Golden Syrumentless caramel jam in the filling’, but you can protect how this recipe is written,” he explained.
“In practice, this means that if someone copies a considerable volume of their text, they may be breaking their copyright. But if the person uses the same ingredients and basic steps with their own words, it usually does not constitute an infringement – even if it is unethical because there is no due credit,” Maehashi concluded.
The influencer post is accused of plagiarism in a cookbook; Understand APPEARED FIRST ON CNN BRAZIL V&G.
Source: CNN Brasil
Johanna Foster is an expert opinion writer with over 7 years of experience. She has a reputation for delivering insightful and thought-provoking articles on a variety of subjects. Her work can be found on some of the top online news websites, and she is currently lending her voice to the world stock market.
