Just as anyone who saw the 1970s film Stork could never look at a smoked oyster the same way again, any Australian exposed to the news media in late 2023 would thenceforth attach some very unsavoury associations to Beef Wellington.  The fancy dinner party dish played a central role in a mass murder investigation that first gripped the nation that August and is still, as of November 2025, making news.

At the centre of the drama was a South Gippsland woman, Erin Patterson, who invited some of her ex-husband’s relatives around for lunch on 29 July. Patterson, by all reports, was fond of foraging for mushrooms and, on that fatal day, included some of her wild-picked bounty in a Beef Wellington. Three of her four guests subsequently died, poisoned by what are believed to be death cap mushrooms. The fourth recovered after more than a month in hospital.

Beef Wellington is an anglicised version of the French Filet de Boeuf en Croute – a beef fillet smothered with finely minced mushrooms and, sometimes, patê and encased in pastry. It is named after the Duke of Wellington who led his troops to the defeat of the French at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Whether the Duke ever actually ate the dish is not known. Nor do we know who gave it its English name. However, it became popular in America, Britain and Australia in the 1960s and has enjoyed a recent revival as a retro party piece for ambitious hostesses.

Initially, Patterson claimed to have had some symptoms of poisoning herself and declared herself innocent, saying she had no reason to poison the people she loved. However, by November, the police investigation into the deaths led to her arrest. She was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder: one relating to the guest who recovered and four relating to her ex-husband whom, the police said, she had tried to kill on several previous occasions. The charges relating to her husband were later dropped.

Patterson was found guilty and sentenced to a lengthy prison term. She is appealing the verdict. However, it’s a brave host who would now serve up Beef Wellington to their guests. And anyone who does will have to cope with raised eyebrows and quite a lot of black humour.  Beef Wellington will never be the same again.