Over the weekend, it was brought to my attention that portions of Elizabeth Haigh’s Makan, reviewed in the Asian Review of Books earlier in the year were taken, essentially verbatim, from Growing Up in a Nonya Kitchen by Sharon Wee, published in 2012 by Singapore’s Marshall Cavendish. These included not just recipes but descriptive and narrative text. For the sake of completeness, I should note that other food writers have also claimed to have their recipes appear in Makan; I have not verified these. The publisher, Bloomsbury, has withdrawn the book.

This requires more than a “correction” to the review. One can discuss the degree to, and manner in, which the work of other writers may be used in a later publication, but it should at the very least be cited and credited. It was not here, and as a result, Makan is not as it was presented to us, and thus not as we presented it to you.

Peter Gordon (editor)