There’s Nothing New Under the Sun (But You Still Gotta Credit the Sky)

As a former food blogger and recipe creator here's my take on the recipe wars between Nagi Maehashi of Recipe Tin Eats and Brooke Bellamy of Bake with Brooki

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As the recipe war rolls on between my fave Nagi Maehashi of Recipe Tin Eats and Brooke Bellamy of Bake with Brooki, I’m having serious déjà vu.

Back in the late 2000s, I was blogging as Girl on Raw, elbows deep in cashew cheese and zucchini noodles, posting my kitchen wins and disasters online for the world (and my mum) to see.

Some of you reading this might even remember downloading my free ebook Easy and Delicious Raw Food Recipes. That little opt-in is how many of you found your way onto this list.

And here’s the thing: a lot of those early recipes weren’t original, not in the strictest sense. I was heavily influenced by friends and other creators in the raw vegan space.

Some generously gifted me their ebooks. Others I followed online with the religious fervour of a new convert. And even more, I invested in their work. But I always made tweaks, swapping sweeteners, changing techniques, or simply failing to measure anything properly (ADHD girl maths: vibes only).

Sometimes the tweaks were born out of necessity, due to living in a literal food desert in Saudi Arabia, and other times, just because I wanted to.

Eventually, through enough substitutions and experiments, they did feel like mine. But I always would give credit where it was due because there’s nothing worse than seeing your own words or creations out there with zero mention of you, as if they floated into someone else’s brain via osmosis.

Which brings me back to this moment.

Nagi has shared her concerns over a major Australian publisher releasing a book that contains eerily similar recipes and wording to hers. You can read her statement here.

Her book Dinner was Australia’s top-selling non-fiction title in 2022, and Tonight took out the top spot overall in 2024 — the biggest-selling book in the country that year.

If you’ve ever made one of her curries, you’ll know how much love, testing and detail she puts into every post. Plus, she has so many no-fail recipes generously available for free on her website. She doesn't just publish a recipe; she gives you the why, the how, and the 'don’t freak out if this happens. '

That’s the difference. That’s what turns a recipe into someone’s intellectual property. Not just the ingredients list, but the process, the teaching style, the personality, the voice.

And if you are inspired by someone else’s work, that’s normal! But you’ve got to follow the rules of good recipe etiquette. If you’re wondering what those are, this guide from Food Blogger Pro lays it out beautifully:

• Don’t just copy-paste, even with “tweaks”

• Credit the source, especially if the inspiration is clear

• Link back where possible

• If the bones of the recipe are someone else’s, say so

This isn’t gatekeeping. It’s basic respect. Attribution builds trust, community, and a culture of shared creativity, not silent imitation.

Years ago, I trained in Oklahoma City under the raw food OGs, Matthew Kenney and Russell James. I learned very quickly that a raw pizza base only has so many variables. You’re working with nuts, flax, and a dehydrator. There’s only so far you can push it before it becomes not-pizza. It’s probably debatable if raw pizza is even pizza, according to my extremely patient husband whom I dragged all over Los Angeles in 2012 to every raw vegan eatery I could find, but that’s a story for another time.

So yes, many recipes will overlap. But it’s how you talk about them? That’s where the magic (and the plagiarism line) lives.

This situation with Nagi isn’t just about one cookbook. It’s about creative integrity in a digital world where we’re all consuming and creating faster than ever.

One of the clearest and most helpful takes I’ve come across on this comes from David Lebovitz, pastry chef, cookbook author, and one of the original food bloggers who was around before Pinterest was a verb. In this post, he spells out how to properly credit recipes and what actually makes one yours.

Here’s what I learned from him when I was food blogging and recipe creating, and still refer to even now:

• You can’t copyright a list of ingredients, but you can protect your writing, structure, and process

• Swapping maple syrup for honey doesn’t make a recipe “new”

• If someone else taught you something and you adapted it, say so

• Want it to be yours? Change the method, test it thoroughly, and rewrite it in your own voice and from your own point of view.

He nails it with this line:

"If you adapt someone’s recipe, you must do more than change the pan size and swap out white sugar for brown."

Honestly? This goes beyond food.

Whether you’re sharing a recipe, an idea, or even a mindset shift, it costs nothing to credit the people who helped shape it. And in doing so, you not only stay in integrity, you also build deeper trust with your readers.

So, to Nagi, I see you. And I thank you. For showing your work, teaching generously, and holding the line on what it means to create.

And to anyone else out there hitting “publish” on a recipe today — remember: there’s nothing new under the sun, but there is a right way to say where your sunshine came from.

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts. Where do you sit on this scenario?