Ahotel chef has been fired after bragging on his Instagram account about how he enjoyed secretly feeding meat to vegans. Alex Lambert was fired from his job as head chef at the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby, when it was discovered he had claimed it was a “personal favourite” thing to feed meat products to vegans.
The 30-year-old’s contract was terminated after vegan campaigners lobbied the hotel , accusing him of abusing the human rights of those who choose not to eat meat products.
Mr Lambert insisted his comments on Instagram were untrue, and he made them to “p— off” a vegan during an argument about meat-eating.
Alex Lambert made the comments in an online row CREDIT: DAVE RUDGE
He told the woman with whom he was arguing that “being a vegan is a minority”, adding that she “should find a better way to spend your time, my personal favourite is feeding vegans animal products and them not knowing”.
She replied: “Hope you get caught one day, would love to see that. I know we’re a minority and really don’t give a s— because that has no relevance. Enjoy the heart disease :)”
Vegans across the world responded to this exchange by flooding the review page for the hotel with one-star reviews and asking for the chef to be fired.
At first, management insisted his comments were made “in a heated moment” and that “this practice has never taken place”, so merely suspended him.
The chef was fired following an online backlash CREDIT: DAVE RUDGE
However, his contract was terminated after the protests persisted, and vegans begged others to boycott the three-star hotel.
Rosie Wilder left a comment on the review page stating: “It is in writing that your head chef is purposely feeding vegans non-vegan food. If the head chef remains, I will never attend this establishment and will warn all my family/friends/vegan groups to avoid at all costs!!”
Abigail Elizabeth Suter wrote: “People have a right to know what goes into their food. If I asked for a vegan dish and was told that is what I’d get then I’d expect a vegan dish. Not something where the chef has been sneaking animal products into it for a laugh.”
Rachel Hill added: “He should not be allowed to work with food again. He clearly cannot be trusted! This is very, very serious, I hope he realises just how dangerous his behaviour has been. The trust that we put into restaurants and chefs as paying customers has been completely abused.”
The hotel said in a statement: “We have investigated all accusations against Mr Lambert and found no evidence suggesting that any of these practices have taken place within this hotel.
“However, due to the comments made by Mr Lambert regarding specific dietary requirements the company has decided to terminate his employment which has been done forthwith.”
Nicholas Crooks, the hotel’s general manager, branded Mr Lambert’s comments “absolute stupidity”.
He said: “This is the last thing we need, the comment was nothing to do with us. We’ve investigated the situation and we’ve replied to every single review.
“We cater to all dietary requirements, we run a proper and professional operation here and we feel as if we’ve been completely battered by this.”
Mr Lambert said his comments were made in the heat of the moment while arguing against a “militant vegan”.
He added: “It was a stupid comment made to a vegan during an argument online.
“It started as a post I had made that essentially said ‘how do you know if someone is a vegan? Don’t worry, they will tell you’.
“That was in relation to a customer who had come in and was telling everyone they were vegan, it’s much healthier and better for them and anyone that eats meat is wrong.
“A militant vegan saw this post and began commenting, saying I should go get heart disease and I will be responsible for the death of my daughter by feeding her animal products.
“I lost my temper, which I think is understandable given her comments, and said something completely stupid with the sole intention of p—ing her off. That is basically all it was.
“I have been a chef for nine years. I have never in this time done anything like feeding a vegan animal products or slipped in contaminated food.
“My job has always been my passion and something I have always taken very seriously. It was a stupid comment said out of anger.
“For the record I have no issue with vegans.”
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