Australian chef upset her beef wellington recipe became ‘entangled’ in mushroom murders case

Nagi Maehashi says it is ‘upsetting’ that a recipe she ‘spent more hours perfecting than any other’ became ‘entangled in a tragic situation’

A popular chef expressed disappointment that her beef wellington recipe took centerstage during the high-profile Erin Patterson triple murder trial in Australia.

Nagi Maehashi, the chef behind the RecipeTin Eats cookbook and food blog, said it was “upsetting” that her recipe had become “entangled in a tragic situation”.

“It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes – possibly the one I have spent more hours perfecting than any other – something I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in a tragic situation,” she said on Instagram on Tuesday.

Ms Maehashi, who had no involvement with the case, asked the media to respect her privacy. “Other than that, I have nothing to say and I won’t be talking to anyone,” she wrote. “Thank you for respecting my privacy.”

A jury this week found Patterson guilty of murdering three elderly relatives of her estranged husband by serving them lunch laced with deadly mushrooms, concluding a criminal trial that had captivated the nation for months.

Erin Patterson’s Leongatha home where she served lunch to her relatives in Australia (AAP)

Patterson, 50, was convicted of murdering her mother-in-law, father-in-law and her mother-in-law’s sister and of attempting to murder the sister’s husband.

She had prepared and served a beef wellington lunch to the four guests at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, in July 2023. The following day, they were all hospitalised with symptoms of death cap mushroom poisoning and three of them later died.

Image released by the Supreme Court of Victoria shows plates containing samples of a beef Wellington meal laced with toxic mushrooms prepared by Erin Patterson (Supreme Court of Victoria)

Patterson claimed that she had used Maehashi’s recipe – albeit with significant changes – when preparing the deadly lunch.

Through the trial spanning over two months, Patterson insisted the beef wellington was unintentionally contaminated with death cap mushrooms, the world’s deadliest fungus.

CCTV image shows Erin Patterson disposing of a food dehydrator used to prepare toxic mushrooms 2 August 2023 (Supreme Court of Victoria)

According to 9News, Ms Maehashi had drawn media attention earlier this year after accusing a well-known online baker named Brooke Bellamy of copying two of her recipes.

Ms Bellamy, who runs the popular “Bake with Brooki” account and has published a cookbook of her own, denied the claim.