Over a week after her plagiarism accusations against fellow cookbook author Brooke Bellamy, Nagi Maehashi has won Illustrated Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) with her second cookbook, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight.
Maehashi beat Bellamy and four other nominees in the running for the award. Her book sold over 78,000 copies in its first week of release last October.
On her socials, the founder of the food website RecipeTin Eats thanked her team, adding: “Thank you for your support for all those months I disappeared into the book making black-hole (and all that Moroccan lamb and seafood pie you taste tested🤣).”
She also made a shout out to her publisher Pan Macmillan Australia, writing: “This one’s for you. For the whole team. I am proud to call you my publisher. Success and integrity. WE DID IT!!”
According to the ABIA website, the judges praised the book’s “exceptional achievement in navigating the enormous complexity in editorial and production to create three editions for three markets at this scale without going out of stock.”
Four other cookbooks, including Bellamy’s were shortlisted for the award, as well as Tim Minchin’s self-help book, You Don’t Have to Have a Dream.
Last week, Maehashi accused Bellamy, owner of Brisbane’s Brooki Bakehouse of plagiarising two of her recipes in Bellamy’s ABIA nominated cookbook, Bake with Brooki. Bellamy has strongly denied these allegations.
This is not Maehashi’s first ABIA win. In 2023, her debut book, RecipeTin Eats: Dinner, won the top prize, Book of the Year.
This year, the top prize went to John Farnham’s memoir, The Voice Inside, which he co-wrote with writer, director and producer, Poppy Stockell. The book also took home Audiobook of the Year and Biography Book of the Year.
The General Fiction Book of the Year went to Perth-based Irish writer Dervla McTiernan’s What Happened to Nina? while the General Nonfiction Book of the Year was awarded to Joe Aston’s The Chairman’s Lounge.
Kaliane Bradley won International Book of the Year with her wildly popular debut, The Ministry of Time, while Tasmanian writer Robbie Arnott won Literary Fiction Book of the Year for his fourth book, Dusk.
The Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year went to All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot, a personal expose on the beauty industry by comedian and broadcaster, Lucinda Price. Alone Australia winner, Gina Chick, took home the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year for her debut memoir, We Are the Stars. The book also took out the No. 1 spot on the Dymocks 2025 Top 101 list.
Image credit: Nagi Maehashi Instagram
Become a Women’s Agenda Foundation member and support our work! We are 100% independent and women-owned. Every day, we cover the news from a women’s perspective, advocating for women’s safety, economic security, health and opportunities. Foundation memberships are currently just $5 a month. Bonus: you’ll receive our weekly editor’s wrap of the key stories to know every Saturday.