Erin Patterson guilty of mushroom murders: RecipeTin Eats creator Nagi Maehashi weighs in

Home cook Nagi Maehashi says she was saddened to learn her beef Wellington recipe – which was created to bring ‘joy and happiness’ – was used by Erin Patterson to kill her estranged husband’s relatives.

Nagi Maehashi’s beef Wellington recipe was used by Erin Patterson to murder her elderly relatives.

Home cook Nagi Maehashi says she was upset to learn her beef Wellington recipe – which was created to bring “joy and happiness” – was used by mushroom murderer Erin Patterson to kill her estranged husband’s parents and aunt.

Maehashi, of RecipeTin Eats, on Tuesday said she had spent more time improving her beef Wellington recipe than any other, and she was saddened it had become “entangled in the tragic situation”.

She also called on journalists to stop contacting her and said she “won’t be talking to anyone”.

“It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes – perhaps the one I’ve spent more hours perfecting than any other – something that I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in this tragic situation,” she wrote in an Instagram post headed with a mushroom emoji.

“Other than that, I have nothing to say and I won’t be talking to anyone. Thank you for respecting my privacy.”

Erin Patterson was convicted of triple-murder on Monday.

Maehashi’s recipe and cookbook ‘Dinner’ became an integral piece of evidence in Patterson’s 40-day murder trial heard in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Police officers who executed a search warrant on Patterson’s house on August 5, 2023, found a copy of the book with the recipe for beef Wellington “spattered” with cooking liquids, the court heard.

Patterson, giving evidence in her defence, told the court she followed the receipt but made a few deviations, including not using prosciutto in the meal because one of her guests did not eat pork.

She also said she made individual servings of beef Wellington because she “couldn’t find the big log (of meat) that the recipe called for”.

Maehashi’s cookbook photographed on Patterson’s kitchen bench.

Senior crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, however, suggested Patterson deviated from the RecipeTin Eats method and made individual portions to “ensure she herself would not accidentally consume any death cap mushrooms”.

“The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver a deadly poison,” Dr Rogers said at trial.

“It was the accused who chose what meal to serve her guests for lunch and she was the one solely responsible for obtaining and preparing each of the ingredients that went into that meal.”

Maehashi made headlines while the trial was sitting for accusing fellow cookbook author Brooke Bellamy – better known as Bake With Brooki – of plagiarising her caramel slice recipe. Bellamy has denied the claims, saying the recipes in her book had been created “over many years while growing up”.

Her debut cookbook, published by Pan Macmillan in 2022, sold 100,000 copies ahead of Christmas and has since sold more than 350,000 copies – making it a $13 million product.