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Australia’s sweetheart of home cooking, Nagi Maehashi—aka the culinary wizard behind RecipeTin Eats—is suddenly serving up a taste of legal drama. Known for her budget-friendly meals and unproblematic vibes, Nagi now finds herself the centrepiece of a plagiarism stew, accused of borrowing a little too generously from other recipe creators.

It’s less “inspired by” and more “Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V with seasoning.” The allegations started bubbling when food bloggers noticed striking similarities between Nagi’s latest creations and recipes floating around lesser-known culinary corners of the internet. Not just the dishes—exact wording, instructions, even identical typos.

Awkward. While her fans are ready to throw down spatulas in her defence, the food world isn’t buying the “great minds think alike” seasoning. This raises a spicier issue: online food content is a recipe Wild West. Everyone’s remixing everyone else, but when the queen of Aussie cooking with millions of followers gets caught in the sauce, people notice.

It's one thing for your cousin to nick a banana bread recipe for her blog—another when it’s the most influential food site in the country possibly pinching from smaller creators. What’s the update? Nagi hasn’t commented yet, though sources say lawyers are quietly fuming in the background. Meanwhile, the recipe in question has mysteriously vanished from her site, like it was never there.

Delete key working overtime, chef? Sources: The Guardian – “Morning Mail: Nagi Maehashi accused of recipe plagiarism” (30/04/2025) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/30/morning-mail-wednesday-ntwnfb