A ‘single skillet spaghetti’ cooked by Meghan Markle on her new Netflix show bears a remarkable resemblance to a recipe by a chef dubbed the new Nigella Lawson, food critics said today.
The Duchess of Sussex rustled up pasta with kale, lemon, tomatoes and parmesan in one pan for her friend and make-up artist Daniel Martin in the first episode of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan.
Meghan said it was a ‘favourite’ in the Sussex household in Montecito, adding: ‘When I make this, I make this for my family’.
Daniel can be heard exclaiming that the spaghetti is ‘so f***ing good’ as Meghan nods and calls it hearty and healthy.
But eagle-eyed cooking enthusiasts and critics have pointed out that the dish is very similar to a British chef’s recipe from ten years ago.
Anna Jones’s ‘kale, tomato and lemon magic one-pot spaghetti’ was revealed to the world in her 2015 cookbook A Modern Way to Cook.
Meghan’s show does not acknowledge Anna’s dish – and she does add chilli flakes and a basil leaf to her Netflix recipe. MailOnline has asked the Duchess of Sussex to comment.
Meghan talks her friend and make-up artist Daniel Martin through her family favourite one-pot spaghetti dish
Meghan puts all the ingredients in the pan and cooks it with boiling water
This was the finished product – but experts have pointed out how similar it was to a British chef’s recipe from ten years ago
Anna Jones (pictured with mentor Jamie Oliver) is a food writer specialising in no-waste, environmentally friendly cooking
Xanthe Clay, chef and food write for the Daily Telegraph, told the newspaper that Meghan should have credited Anna, whose version of that recipe is the earliest she can find albeit the one-pot technique is not a new one.
She said: ‘It’s dismal to find your hard-won recipe ‘repurposed’ in someone else’s book, web page or TV show. There’s no copyright on the ingredients list. It’s the wording of the method that ‘belongs’ to the writer, and as Meghan’s isn’t written down she’s probably safe from legal action.
‘But – and this is a big but – Meghan’s does seem very similar to Anna’s, from ingredients to technique… Not, of course, that I am suggesting that Megs doesn’t come up with her own recipes – after all, her version does include garlic and chilli flakes, unlike Anna’s.
‘Still, legal niceties aside, Meghan may not get away with this without a stain on her expensive linen apron. Cookery writer etiquette demands that you acknowledge your sources. That doesn’t need to be an Oscar speech length list of thank yous, just a simple line of gratitude for the inspiration.’
Franceso Mazzei, the celebrated chef who helped the King design an Anglo-Italian menu for a Highgrove dinner involving Stanley Tucci, said: ‘You have to acknowledge the recipe, people will know, it will get back to you’.
Anna Jones is an established best-selling author and cook.
She is a chef and writer who specialises in no-waste, vegetarian recipes.
The East London-based cook was one of the oldest trainees in Jamie’s Kitchen, and was one month away from her 25th birthday – the cut-off age – when she applied.
Unlike her fellow trainees, Anna had completed a degree and was working in PR at the time she applied for the programme.
After going on to work in the Fifteen kitchen, Anna moved on to work in the media side of the business, where she remained for seven years and wrote about food.
She has since released a cookbook, One: Pot, Pan, Planet, which teaches people how to make the most of ingredients while considering climate conservation.
One of her other hits was A Modern Way to Cook in 2015, which included the spaghetti dish that Meghan may have been inspired by.
Anna’s recipe was praised at the time by British star chefs Jamie Oliver and Nigel Slater and one reviewer predicted she would be the ‘the new Nigella [Lawson]’.
Her recipe, also published online, tells cooks to put the pasta into the pan, roughly chop the tomatoes and throw them in with the zest of two lemons and olive oil and salt.
Add 1 litre of boiling water, put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil, then remove the lid and simmer on a high heat for six minutes, using a pair of tongs to turn the pasta every 30 seconds or so as it cooks, she says.
Once all the water has been absorbed or nearly evaporated she says to split in four bowls and then top with parmesan.
Meghan told her viewers to put pasta in a pan with tomatoes and pour boiling water on top and zesting a lemon into it.
She says to add the chard and kale and let the pasta dish boil, also for six minutes. At the end she adds rocket, chilli flakes and a basil leaf, which is not in Anna’s dish.
Following Tuesday’s launch, eagle-eyed viewers have highlighted a string of similarities between the Duchess’ recipes and others they have seen before.
Some compared her ‘Ladybug Caprese Bruschetta’ to similar recipes while others spotted a likeness to a YouTube cooking show hosted by the Marchioness of Bath.
They were also featured on the ‘Diary of a Mad Hausfrau’ travel and food blog back in July 2016.
Meghan’s beekeeping was also noted for being one of Kate Middleton‘s favourite hobbies.
Kate is known to make her own honey – while Queen Camilla is also a keen apiarist, and keeps bees at Raymill, her six-bedroom retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire.
Meghan Markle ‘s highly anticipated new cooking show ‘With Love, Meghan’ finally aired on Netflix this morning – and it has everybody talking
Meghan Markle (pictured) said it’s a ‘real delight and luxury’ to be a ‘present parent’ while making a rainbow-themed fruit salad
Pictured is what appears to be an identical copy of a rainbow fruit platter shared by food blogger, Meg Quinn, in March 2024, which uses the same fruits and design as Meghan’s
Following today’s launch, eagle-eyed viewers have highlighted a string of similarities between the Duchess’ recipes and others they have seen before. Some compared her ‘Ladybug Caprese Bruschetta’ to similar recipes
Meghan’s beekeeping was noted for also being one of Kate Middleton’s favourite hobbies. The Princess of Wales (left was pictured tending to a hive at Anmer Hall in Norfolk in May 2023. Meghan is seen, right, on her new show
Meghan’s new eight-part show will feature her cooking for friends, flower arranging and showing how to host small events for friends
Camilla is also president of Bees For Development, a charity protecting bee habitats in more than 50 countries; while Buckingham Palace is home to four beehives on an island in a lake in the garden, and there are two hives in Clarence House’s garden.
One viewer tweeted: ‘If anyone wanted to read between the lines, this is yet another opportunity for Netflix, Reed Hastings and Markle to continue trolling the British monarchy, since all Meghan is trying to do is to imitate an English lifestyle, dressing and keeping bees like Catherine.’
Another wrote that it was ‘something the King, Prince William and Princess Catherine been doing for years – no, a beekeeper she’s not. Copied that off the royals.’
And a third said: ‘And you know who keeps bees? Princess Catherine at her home in Amner Hall. It’s one of her passions. Meghan has never had an original idea ever.’
The new show promises an intimate ‘at home’ experience with the royal, 43, but she has in fact chosen to film the eight-episode series in a home that isn’t her own.
In one clip from the kitchen of the rented £5million reality TV Montecito mansion where the show is set, Meghan, who tells viewers she’ll share ‘some little tips and tricks’, makes a ‘Ladybug’-themed appetiser.
However, viewers noted that recipes for the dish have been around since 2015 on dozens of food blogs and Pinterest pages.
They also feature in the US lifestyle magazine First For Women in 2018 and the popular TikTok account Home Cooks World in 2023.
Meanwhile other viewers have compared scenes from the show to those in the YouTube cooking program ‘Emma’s Kitchen’ hosted by marchioness and chef Emma Weymouth.
Meanwhile other viewers have compared scenes from the show to those in the YouTube cooking program ‘Emma’s Kitchen’ hosted by marchioness and chef Emma Weymouth
The Celebrity MasterChef contestant – formally known as Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath – posts videos of her creations after launching the brand in 2015 using the backdrop of the original kitchens within Longleat House.
One observer tweeted similar still images from each show, writing: ‘Emma Weymouth, Marchioness of Bath, has had a cooking programme at Longleat estate for nine years!’
Another viewer said: ‘Why is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex trying to channel Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath? TBH, Emma seems more natural while Meghan often seems like she’s acting from a script. I think Meghan should focus strictly on charity work.’
A third added: ‘This woman has no original idea! This is a copy of Emma’s Kitchen!.’ And a fourth tweeted: ‘Very much like Emma’s Kitchen on YouTube.
During the eight-part show, Meghan boasts about how it was a ‘real delight and luxury’ to be a ‘present parent’ while making a rainbow-themed fruit salad.
Placing fruits such as grapes, blueberries and strawberries on a chopping board before declaring ‘you don’t have to do a big platter of this… you could do this with one small row for your kids for breakfast’.
‘It makes the morning a lot more fun’, said the mother-of-two, before adding: ‘Can I just show you? If you just made one.’
However, the artful display appears to be an identical copy of one shared by food blogger, Meg Quinn, in March 2024, which uses the same fruits and design.
