A restaurant co-owner and head chef in the UK has resigned amid uproar over a Facebook post in which she claimed to have “spiked” a vegan’s meal.
A spokesperson for the Carlini Italian restaurants in Shropshire county, England, announced the chef’s resignation in a statement to BBC.
“Laura Goodman has today tendered her resignation from Carlini and the board of directors are currently considering their options,” the spokesperson said.
Along with her fiancé and business partner, Michael Gale, Italian-born Goodman, 62, was head chef and co-of the two restaurant locations in Albrighton and Shifnal.
Early Saturday morning, Goodman posted in the “Boring Group” Facebook community that she “spiked a vegan a few hours ago.”
She later added a post in the closed group claiming that a “pious, judgmental vegan (who I spent all day cooking for) has gone to bed, still believing she’s a vegan.”
The comments generated a storm of protest on social media, with outraged members calling Richardson an “arsehole” and posting negative reviews on some websites, dragging the restaurant’s Google review down to one star.
According to the Telegraph, one angry vegan suggested that Goodman should face criminal charges in post on the restaurant’s website.
“This lady should be charged with assault,” the post read.
“We are vegan for a reason. To disregard our wishes and boast about contaminating our food is at least a sackable offense.”
Recognizing that the backlash and media attention was affecting their ratings, the travel site TripAdvisor added a message on their Carlini restaurant page stating that they had temporarily suspended publishing new submissions for the business.
The restaurant’s Facebook page has been shut down.
According to the Huffington Post UK, police visited the restaurant on Tuesday after Gale reported that his fiancée had even received death threats.
Gale told the Telegraph that the entire situation was simply a “misunderstanding.” He claimed that Goodman made the comments on social media “after a long shift and too much to drink.”
“There is no question of her having ‘spiked’ anyone,” Gale continued, and offered an explanation of what happened.
“We had a group of vegetarian and vegan customers who booked a table. Laura had spoken to them before they came in and had suggested some dishes they might like to try which they said they would be happy to order. But instead when they did come in they only ordered two dishes off the standard menu, a roasted cauliflower dish and a margherita pizza which obviously has buffalo mozzarella cheese When one of the waitresses came into the kitchen she commented that she thought one of the vegans had been eating the pizza. The comment came from that.”
Since vegans do not consume any animal products, cheese would not be part of a vegan diet.
Gale conveyed Goodman’s deep regret over the incident.
“There is no way Laura would ever do anything to jeopardize the business that we have put so much work into,” he said.
“She is absolutely mortified by what has happened and we can only offer our sincere apologies for these ill-advised comments.”
[Feature image: Facebook/Laura Goodman]
