(Credit: Rob Palmer)
Nagi Maehashi’s beloved golden retriever isn’t at the RecipeTin Meals kitchen today. Despite being an important member of the team, or as Nagi jokes, “a little too iconic”, Dozer always has to be locked in the office when he’s at the food bank she runs and he makes his displeasure very much known.
“He just barks and barks because he just wants to be with us,” Nagi tells Woman’s Day. “But let’s not feel too bad, he lives a pretty good life!”
Fans of the Sydney-based food blogger, cookbook author and occasional MasterChef guest judge understand the vital role Dozer plays as “taste-tester” for Nagi’s hugely popular RecipeTin Eats.
PASSION PROJECT
Last week when Woman’s Day was set to visit the not-for-profit HQ, Nagi had to cancel as two chefs were off sick and she had to step in and cook.
“I’ll cancel all my plans so we can get the meals out every day,” she explains of her passion project. “There are literally 500 people waiting for dinner from us and we can’t let them down.”
Nagi’s determination to help people facing food insecurity is rooted in her own childhood. Her mum, Yumiko, was a single mum and “really struggled” when Nagi and her siblings were growing up.
“She worked incredibly hard to keep food on the table and a roof over the head of her three kids,” Nagi says. “I really look up to her and admire her. My work ethic came from her.”
SELF-TAUGHT COOK
Born in Japan and raised in Sydney’s north, Nagi is a self-taught cook and says Yumiko, an IT worker who now works at RecipeTin, didn’t teach Nagi how to cook, save for wrapping gyoza.
“As a child, we did not get along at all, I was such a brat,” she says, explaining she was the kind of teenager who “snuck out in the middle of the night”.
After leaving home at 18, Nagi developed a love of cooking through sheer necessity and, after more than a decade of working successfully in corporate finance, quit to launch her recipe blog in 2014.
By 2016, she was earning more than in her previous job and nowadays the site has more than 500 million views a year.
COMFORT FOOD
“The number one thing people tell me is the recipes just work and taste delicious, and that makes me so happy,” says Nagi.
Her first book, Dinner, came out in 2023 and became a worldwide bestseller and her second, Tonight, is released this month. Unsurprisingly, she finds it hard to do her groceries without crossing paths with fans.
“I always seem to get caught at the checkout when I have embarrassing things in my trolley, like my Vegemite Shapes and Diet Coke, which are two of my weaknesses,” laughs Nagi.
“But if I bumped into Jamie Oliver at the supermarket, I would look in his trolley, too.” Jamie is among the chefs Nagi admires. “I have a thing about old school British chefs,” she shares. “The comfort food.”
She especially admires Nigella Lawson who, like her, writes all her own recipes. “I had dinner with her last year – I still can’t believe it,” says Nagi. “She is exactly what you imagine her to be, but so much more,” she says. “She’s cheeky as all hell! I laughed so hard.”
TV CAREER
But Nagi isn’t interested in having a TV career like Nigella’s.
“It’s not what makes me happy and it’s not what I crave,” she says. “I know a lot of people want to be on TV and I totally respect that. It’s just not for me.”
In fact, Nagi says she would turn down a permanent spot on MasterChef if she was offered one, although she will be back as a guest judge next season. And her reason is the food bank.
“I couldn’t afford the time away from RecipeTin Meals. [The judges] are locked up down there for three or four months. Also, could Dozer come on set each day? That’s the important question,” she jokes.
Nagi, who is tight-lipped about her private life, says she had an epiphany that explains her reluctance for more TV.
“Quite often people experience a tragedy that makes them re-evaluate and that’s definitely something that did happen six years ago that really changed my outlook on life,” she says. “It made me focus on living every day like it’s your last.”
For Nagi, that means spending time at RecipeTin Meals and creating recipes, with Dozer by her side. “I’m very focused on doing what I enjoy,” she says. “If I didn’t, I would have run out of steam a long time ago.”
You can find Nagi’s RecipeTin Eats books on Amazon Australia or at Big W.
