Nagi Maehashi is creator of the RecipeTin Eats website and one of Australia’s most popular cooks. Editor in chief Michelle Giglio talks to Nagi about how the Northern Beaches was the catalyst of it all, life since the launch of her chart-topping cookbook and why feeding the needy through her charity arm RecipeTin Meals is so important to her.
As I enter Nagi Maehashi’s home, delicious smells drift from the kitchen. RecipeTin Eats culinary collaborator Jean-Baptiste Alexandre is busy prepping vegetables in his trademark blue and white apron. Assistants are calmy but purposely walking around with laptops and long to-do lists on their minds. A Christmas ham is resting on the bench and Nagi’s ever-faithful canine companion Dozer eyes it questioningly, wondering if today is his lucky day.
Smiling among it all is Australia’s favourite cook, Nagi Maehashi, whose debut cookbook RecipeTin Eats: Dinner made history in June by defying all expectations to win the coveted ABIA 2023 book of the year (Australian Book Industry Awards). It’s a feat normally reserved for fiction and non-fiction works, and certainly not cooking manuals.
For Nagi is not a chef. She is a former corporate finance executive who gave it all away to pursue a dream to build a business from her favourite hobby – cooking.
Her 1.2 million Instagram followers cannot get enough of the RecipeTin Eats easy-to-follow recipes, all developed, tested, filmed and photographed by Nagi herself.
How is life since launching RecipeTin Eats: Dinner 12 months ago?
RecipeTin Meals can expand now it has a new kitchen at North Ryde.
“Insanity!” Nagi laughs. “Unlike anything I would’ve ever dreamed of.
“When I did a cookbook, I had no idea that it would open a Pandora’s box. I’d had a lot of contact with people, in particular Australians and locals up until then.
“But online is very different to real life. And I never knew, because I’d lived my whole career in this industry behind the keyboard.
“So when I came out from behind the keyboard, I think the publisher (Pan McMillan) was also very nervous because they were thinking, ‘how’s she going to cope with real life and meeting people?’ But apparently I did OK!”
More than OK. At the launch of RecipeTin Eats: Dinner at Big W in Warringah Mall in October 2022, 600 people queued to get their books signed. And so for four hours, that is what Nagi did, accompanied by her golden retriever Dozer. The first print run of RecipeTin Eats: Dinner sold out and was quickly re-printed to become the highest-selling book of Christmas 2022 – and is looking likely to be the same for 2023. Add in making The New York Times Best Sellers list in April this year after the book’s launch in the USA, and Nagi’s popularity is becoming truly global.
The popularity of Nagi’s RecipeTin Eats website did not happen by accident. When Nagi, 45, quit her high-flying corporate finance role, she spent 18 months trying to make a career out of cooking. Her first attempt, an app, failed miserably. Rather than be deterred, Nagi persisted but stuck true to her mission: to make recipes guaranteed to work using fresh, wholesome ingredients that don’t break the budget. She learnt to use a camera and do videos. She tested, re-tested and tested her recipes again. On day one, she had two followers – herself and her mum. Four months later she turned a profit of $120. And that’s when she knew: “I was so excited because the possibilities were there. And that was really the catalyst of it that I realised it could work.”
Jean-Baptiste has become an important collaborator for RecipeTin Eats/Meals.
If you watch Nagi’s tutorials you will see she is relaxed, personable and loves giving tips (much as she hates being in front of the camera!). And is always smiling. Is there some secret formula about the way Nagi interacts with people that has made her such a cooking phenomenon?
“I’m just being me!” Nagi exclaims. “Cooking is genuinely where my passion is. I love experimenting with new recipes. And ideas can come from anywhere, but it’s just doing something in the kitchen or just figuring out a new technique. It’s just what I do.”
Lest anyone be fooled by passion meaning no effort, Nagi sets out her exhausting schedule, which means she spends 80 per cent of her week on a laptop editing photos, writing content and responding to cooking queries from readers – not to mention cooking, testing a recipe and trying it a different way. Then filming, filming again (usually multiple times) and finally, taking photos.
“People look at what we do and they go ‘oh, that’s a dream job’. But the reality of the job is not what you see on Instagram. It’s so unglamorous. We do so much washing up!” she laughs.
Weekends are when she can get creative and relax. “My idea of the perfect Sunday is literally no social plans, no one around. And I will just cook all day. I know that sounds really sad, but it’s literally just what I love doing.”
RecipeTin Eats won two ABIA awards – book of the year and illustrated book of the year.
I am just like you. I’m a home cook. The only difference is that I’ve worked really hard on being able to communicate my recipes to other home cooks.
At the RTM kitchen, over 2,000 meals are made a week for those in need.
How has this Japanese-born Australian managed to cut through the obsession Australia has with cooking – think MyKitchen Rules, Zumbo’s Just Desserts and MasterChef, now in its 15th season – in such a saturated market?
“Grit!” Nagi laughs. “I think part of it is the resounding feedback I get from people is that the recipes always work. And for me, that was one of my big things when I first started.
“I thought about the gripes I had with recipes I’ve used in my life, whether it’s online or in cookbooks. And the biggest thing for me is when they don’t work out, because you’ve wasted time and money and you don’t have something delicious to eat for dinner. Which is the worst part actually!
“And I got to the stage where I was confident enough with cooking that I could read a recipe and generally tell if there was going to be a problem with it. And so I could adjust it and fix it myself.
“But most home cooks don’t have that skill. And so when I started my website, I had a real hangup about making sure if I was putting something out there publicly, then I really wanted to make sure it worked. And I just got better and better at communicating online.”
The effervescent cook is adamant she is not a chef. “When I compare myself to chefs, chefs don’t teach. They cook to serve and they’re amazing at it. And I can’t do that.
“I am just like you. I’m a home cook. The only difference is that I’ve worked really hard on being able to communicate my recipes to other home cooks.”
While Nagi may not be a chef, the world of haute cuisine is certainly noticing her. Restaurants will get in touch to ask if they can use her recipes, which Nagi says is the ‘ultimate’ compliment.
Our interview is interrupted several times by Dozer insisting I give him access to the croissants which are sitting on the table. Dozer has been a part of Nagi’s life since she moved to the Northern Beaches 13 years ago from Gladesville. And Nagi reveals the Beaches were actually the ‘catalyst’ for the RecipeTin Eats website.
“I was working in corporate at the time, just working horrible hours. And I was travelling a lot for work and I was in Sydney for a rare weekend. And I thought, ‘I’ve got to stop working and go for a walk.
“I was walking along a street on the Northern Beaches and I found this beach shack, which had ridiculous views of Bungan Beach and the district.”
A week later, Nagi had moved in and then proceeded to fall in love with the Northern Beaches. “I got sick of commuting into the city. I got Dozer and I was like, ‘I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to work in the city,’” she laughs.
“And so I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great to start my own business at home?’
“So the Northern Beaches was the catalyst for, I guess some would call it a midlife crisis. But it wasn’t done without thought. I obviously had some savings. It was the right time in my life to do it because I’d built up a bit of a stash and I knew I could take a punt on doing something new.”
Did she ever have self-doubt? “I definitely had moments when I almost gave up!” she laughs.
“I used the word grit before, and I think that that was part of it. Just having the absolute persistence and the ‘never give up’ attitude.”
While Nagi reluctantly sold her home in Mona Vale this year, it was only so she could more easily find a bigger kitchen to take her charity arm, RecipeTin Meals (RTM), to the next level. RTM provides over 100,000 meals a year (2,000 a week) for those in need on the Northern Beaches. But Nagi has her sights on half a million meals a year in the next few years.
“This (new) kitchen will let me bring corporate sponsors in and hopefully partner with a large food organisation so we can create more meals because now we’ve got the space to do it.”
While Nagi may have left the Beaches, she is still there every other weekend walking Dozer at the Bayview dog park, still a favourite for them both.
Jean-Baptiste, as well as helping Nagi test her recipes, supervises three full-time chefs at the North Ryde kitchen who make the meals ‘from scratch’. Most are from RecipeTin Eats and once made they are driven to food charity One Meal Northern Beaches who distributes to those in need. Nagi describes One Meal as an ‘incredible’ organisation which is purely volunteer-driven. Food is handed out at community drop-off points including parks in Manly and Narraweena. But they also deliver to people’s homes, targeting those who have restricted mobility, mental health issues and domestic violence concerns. “I’ve got so much respect and am in awe of what they do,” Nagi says.
“When I started my website, my initial goal was to make a living for myself and keep a roof over Dozer’s head. But when the website started to grow and I realised that it was going to be more than what I needed for my own salary, I found that earning more income wasn’t giving me satisfaction.
“And then when I met JB (Jean-Baptiste), having a professional chef in my team gave me the ability to start RTM. That’s when everything changed for me. I don’t think I would have the drive to keep going with my business and keep wanting to grow it unless I had RTM.”
As for Christmas, Nagi says ‘don’t get stressed!’
“Don’t go above your means, in particular in these times. You don’t need to spend a lot for it to be a great time. You just need to be around the right people.”
Nagi advises a glazed chicken over turkey this year (the recipe will be coming out soon on her website), as apart from the cost, ‘the ratio of the fat of the meat is much better so that you get more flavour and it’s easier to cook’.
In terms of dessert, choose pavolva and any type of cheap fruit instead of berries which can go up in price at Christmas, she advises.
Most importantly, Nagi says to reach out to someone in need. “Christmas is the time for giving,” she reminds us. “Make a meal for someone who needs it, even if it’s the elderly couple down the road that who can’t really cook for themselves anymore. Just take them a couple of freezer meals.” Or use one of Nagi’s recipes for leftover ham to make ham and potato chowder and take it to One Meal Northern Beaches.
“The main thing is – don’t stress!”
Maple glazed ham
recipetineats.com
INGREDIENTS
- Ham Must have rind on. Smoked is best. Nagi says: “You don’t need to spend $50 a kilo, but it you do, don’t waste it.”
- Maple syrup or honey is what gives this ham glaze a special touch
- Brown sugar adds to the caramelised flavour of the glaze
- Dijon Mustard is a thickener for the ham glaze and adds much needed tang to an otherwise sweet glaze
- Cinnamon and all spice for a touch of festive spices
- Oranges for a bit of liquid in the pan that’s more interesting than just using water
- Cloves optional, for studding.
HOW TO MAKE GLAZED HAM
Making glazed ham is a three-step process:
- Remove rind (skin) from ham;
- Slather with maple glaze then bake for two hours, basting with more glaze every 20 to 30 minutes;
- Baste loads after removing from oven – the trick for a thick, golden glaze.
For step-by-step details and tips on how to buy a ham, go to recipetineats.com