Celebrity baker Brooke Bellamy has made her return to social media, finally breaking her silence weeks after being accused of plagiarism in her recent cookbook.
ICYMI, Bellamy became embroiled in controversy last month when fellow social media cook and RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi publicly accused her of copying her recipes for her popular new cookbook, Bake with Brooki.
While Bellamy, who denies the allegations, briefly addressed the saga in a press statement last month, her social media has remained largely inactive.
Now, in her first post since the scandal broke, Bellamy has taken to her bakery’s official Instagram account to explain her social media absence and address the scandal.
“I’ve never had such a long break between videos but I’ve also never experienced something like I have over the last few weeks,” Bellamy said in the video, which is filmed in her Queensland bakery, Brooki Bakehouse.
While explaining her process of writing Bake with Brooki, Bellamy cited her mother as her biggest inspiration, saying she “was really excited to share all of the recipes that I’ve been making since I was small.”
“These recipes have been written down on paper, been handed to me by friends and family, they get passed down through generations”.
Later, Bellamy admitted that while the recipes in her book are “personal to me”, she does not claim to “have invented the cookies, cupcakes, brownies or cakes in the recipe book”.
“They are all inspired from somewhere and someone before me,” she said.
Towards the end of the video, Bellamy — who was subject to online trolling in the wake of Maehashi’s allegations — said she does not “subscribe to be a part of a narrative that pits two women against each other, especially in the same industry”.
“That’s all I’m going to say about it,” Bellamy added.
It comes weeks after the Aussie cooking world was set alight when Maehashi, a fellow best-selling cookbook author, claimed Bellamy had plagiarised two recipes, including a caramel slice and baklava
“This is a story about a multi-million dollar cookbook by a social media influencer, published by a blue-chip publisher, featuring numerous recipes that, in my opinion, are plagiarised”, Maehashi wrote when bringing the allegations to light.
For her part, Bellamy has consistently denied the claims, saying in a statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV via her lawyers from Wilkinson Butler that she “do[es] not copy other people’s recipes” and instead “draw[s] inspiration from the classics”
