If you’ve ever jumped online to find that perfect recipe, chances are you’ve stumbled across RecipeTin Eats.
Boasting hundreds of quick and easy recipes, the blog was started by self-confessed food lover, Nagi Maehashi, in a bid to bring back the love for good, home-cooking and to show Australians (and thousands more across the globe) that delicious food needn’t be a pain in the proverbial to make.
But (and as any follower can attest), the blog’s rampant popularity stretches well beyond cuisine.
RecipeTin Eats has become a rare online corner that truly is as comforting as your best friend’s kitchen. Maehashi’s masterful descriptions and family-like tips have earned her mass influence and admiration, with commentors on the page regularly engaging and thanking her for bringing them back to confident cooking.
It’s little wonder that the Sydney food maestro’s recently released debut cookbook, ‘Dinner’ has been the no. 1 national best-seller for the past fortnight.
I caught up with Nagi recently to chat about her career journey (from corporate to kitchen), her failsafe Christmas showstoppers and her hopes for the future—as RecipeTin Eats grows bigger and bigger.
You’ve found this amazing intersection between food that’s interesting and genuinely delicious, but also accessible. Was that your intention when you launched the blog?
I don’t describe it as eloquently as you, but that’s exactly what I go for. I really like doing things that are a little bit interesting, but still recognisable. They’re not dishes with names that no one’s ever heard of before; that they can’t pronounce or which sound inaccessible. Even if it’s something as basic as Greek meatballs and Moroccan meatballs. It’s just about using the spice. You can get it at Woolworths and Coles, but that combination makes it! You take a bite and you’re just like, ‘My God, it’s delicious!’
What’s the one thing that your readers and fans would be surprised to learn about you?
I don’t think people knew that I took all my own photos and that I did all my own videos, and how much testing I did.
A couple of months ago for instance, I made chicken rissoles, which sounds like such a simple recipe (and it is). But the fact that it was something that we just made up on a whim because we had leftover chicken meat. And then we were like, ‘Oh, my God! It’s so good. Let’s share this. It’s so easy’. Even for a recipe like that, we probably made it 7 or 8 times before we published it. It was not just getting the flavours exactly right, but we knew everyone would ask, ‘Can we bake it? Can we airfry it?’ So, we made versions testing that out.
The foolproof part of it is so important to me. Sometimes, I can be hard to catch, but if my team text me to say, ‘Nagi, there’s a typo on a recipe’, I drop everything, get straight to my computer, and quickly change it. I freak out!
Your community does seem to mean so much to you. You engage with so many people and respond with truly thoughtful comments. How long does that take?
I think you’re the first person that’s observed that, and it’s quite interesting. For me, I definitely do what comes naturally. I spend more time on the latest recipes, because they’re new and people have got questions about them. I really like seeing what people think about recipes and the questions they ask, because that’s how I improve the recipes.
The way I’ve learned and the way I write recipes, as well as the types of testing I do, is from from reading these messages. That’s how I know how to anticipate questions that they will ask and the type of recipes that I think they’ll like or ones they don’t realise that they need in their life.
With Christmas coming this weekend (yikes!) what’s your best recipe recommendation?
Oh, Christmas baked salmon, for sure.
Oh, that was a quick response!
Yeah. So many people love it. I just keep hearing about it from people. It’s got the wow factor looks-wise. It’s super convenient because you can just get all the toppings ready in advance. Cooking it is super easy on the day because you wrap it in foil so there’s no mess to deal with. It can be served at room temperature and you can do it on an outdoor barbecue or in the oven. The flavour is also off the charts. Ever since the day I posted it, it’s just gotten a cult following.
But there are obviously a lot of people, (especially women) who carry immense mental loads around Christmas and feel stressed by the prospect of holiday cooking and hosting. What advice do you have for anyone in this boat?
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself, honestly! I put it on myself as well. I feel like there’s an expectation and you feel like you want to impress, and I get it. It’s a Christmas day. It’s a festive occasion, but I think lower your own standards. I don’t know. It sounds weird to say that, but don’t put the pressure on yourself. If you don’t have time to cook something, so be it. Just get some beautiful fresh strawberries and mango and take a fruit salad.
There is a certain level of perfectionism that goes along with Christmas preparation, isn’t there?
Yeah. If you can’t do it, you’ve also got to be prepared to say no.
But… if you do want something emergency that makes a statement and is zero effort, go and buy a brie. It doesn’t even need to be expensive one. Whack it on a plate, microwave it for 2 minutes, and you have a baked brie.
Do you put anything in it?
You don’t have to. It is delicious plain. But personally, I like to put a bit of honey or maple syrup on it. And if you want to get really fancy, grab a few walnuts, crush it in your hand, and drop it on the brie with the honey. That combination is phenomenal.
I’m keen to hear your thoughts on convenience foods and the greater prevalence of delivery options. With all this “ease”, why, in your mind, is good home cooking still so important?
It’s just the quality of the food. The food is just better if you make it from scratch. It just is, and it’s healthier. When you read those labels of the readymade meals at Woolworths and stuff, it’s terrifying how few of the ingredients I recognise.
You mention your mum a lot in your book and your blog. Is she quite a big influence on how you cook and your ethos?
No. Oh, not at all. It’s so funny, I think everyone thinks that… Because we are close, I’d say she’s my best friend. She’s my biggest critic, biggest supporter. But no, I didn’t cook when I was a kid. I know everyone wants to think that we’re in the kitchen, wrapping dumplings together, like that beautiful romantic vision of mother and daughter. But actually, I was such a brat, I was the worst kid and I never helped in the kitchen.
So how did you go from having zero interest in food as a kid to then suddenly building a food empire? How did that happen?!
Well, in all honesty, I always loved food. I was just lazy, so I didn’t cook. I moved out of home at 18 because I wanted financial independence. I got a full-time job in corporate, but my full-time salary was $16,000 a year. I couldn’t afford to eat at good restaurants, so I had to learn how to cook. So, that’s why I started cooking because I just loved good food and couldn’t afford to eat out.
What are you hopes for RecipeTin Eats? And did you ever envisage that this is where it would go?
I never in a million years imagined this. It’s been an experience I will treasure forever.
As for next goals, I really want to turn my focus back onto my food bank RecipeTin Meals. I have a team of three people. There’s a chef and then 2 kitchen hands, in a commercial kitchen in the city who make homemade meals for the vulnerable here in Sydney. We donate the food every day. I want to focus on growing that—and I’m just wrapping up some licensing requirements. That’s the thing I’m most proud of and the priority of my business.
You can pick up Nagi Maehashi’s debut cookbook, Dinner at all good bookshops.