This undated handout photo from the Supreme Court of Victoria released on July 7, 2025 shows an annotated photo of plates containing samples of a beef Wellington meal laced with toxic mushrooms that was prepared by Australian home cook Erin Patterson, during a toxicology analysis at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. -AFP/ Supreme Court of VictoriaUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
MELBOURNE: One of Australia's most famous chefs said she was dismayed to learn killer cook Erin Patterson partially used her recipe when baking a poisonous beef Wellington that killed three people.
Patterson was found guilty this week of murdering her husband's parents and elderly aunt in 2023 by lacing their Saturday lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms.
She based the dish - poisonous fungi aside - on a recipe by celebrity Australian chef Nagi Maehashi, the author of best-selling cookbooks.
Maehashi said her recipe for the perfect beef Wellington had become "entangled in a tragic situation".
"It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes - possibly the one I've spent more hours perfecting than any other - something I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in a tragic situation," she said late Tuesday (July 8) on social media.
Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world's most-lethal fungus.
But a 12-person jury on Monday found the 50-year-old guilty of triple murder, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a fourth guest who survived. - AFP
