A celebrity chef has banned vegans from eating at his restaurant "for mental health reasons."
British chef John "Johnnie" Mountain gained fame on the BBC’s "Great British Menu," a BBC series described on IMDb as "Top British chefs compete against each other and are scored by a panel of acclaimed judges for the chance to cook one course of a four course banquet." Mountain was born in the UK and has opened multiple restaurants, but reportedly lived in Australia since 2016 after retiring from television. He opened up the Fyre restaurant among the suburbs in Connolly, Perth in Western Australia, where he as reportedly led a "calmer" life for years.
However, the chef finds himself making headlines once again after he recently "banned" vegans from his restaurant going forward.
"Sadly All Vegans are now banned from FYRE (for mental health reasons). We thank you for your understanding. Xx," he wrote on his restaurant’s Facebook page.
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He followed by sharing a screenshot of the post and wrote, "Yep. I’m done. #vegan #not #pleasegoelsewhere #veganfreezone #nomorevegans."
The chef gave his perspective to The West Australian on the series of events that led to him banning vegans from his restaurant.
"A young girl reached out to me and said she was coming to the restaurant… and asked if there were vegan options," he said. "It was my only shortfall… I said I would accommodate her, I said we had gnocchi, vegetables… and that was that."
However, he noted he "forgotten" to make those vegan accommodations as he was busy catering for "private party."
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The customer condemned the restaurant on Facebook, "I think it’s incredibly important nowadays that restaurants can accommodate everyone and to not be able to have actual plant-based meals shows your shortcomings as a chef," and warned the restaurant probably would not last very long.
Fyre’s response claimed that "vegans/ vegetarians" are "very low minority" in the area and warned it will not be serving them anymore.
"Thanks for your negative review… please feel free to share your s..tty experience and I look forward to not seeing you again. How very childish. You and all your vegan mates can all go and enjoy your dishes in another venue. You are now banned," he responded.
Since then, Mountain claimed the restaurant has been flooded online with negative reviews, though some are rallying to defend his establishment as well.
"F--k vegans seriously… I’m done," he told the Australian news outlet. "At the end of the day, it’s not what I want to do, they can f--k off."
"It’s not a vegan restaurant… if they want vegan food, they can go to a vegan restaurant," Mountain said. "The rebuttal, and attitude (of vegans) is the reason for the ban… they are piling on trying to ruin my restaurant."
