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Chef Daniel Humm and London’s Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair are to part ways over the chef’s vegan direction taken at his New York restaurant.
Reports say that the Swiss chef will leave Davies and Brook restaurant in Claridge's at the end of the year after the hotel rejected his vision of a plant-based menu. While the hotel says they respect Humm’s vision, they said in a statement posted on Twitter that it is “not a path we wish to follow”.
“We completely respect and understand the culinary direction of a fully plant-based menu that Daniel has decided to embrace and champion and now wants to introduce to London. However, this is not the path we wish to follow here at Claridge’s at the moment, and therefore, regretfully, we have mutually decided to go our separate ways,” they said.
“We wish to thank Daniel Humm and his extraordinary team at Davies and Brook for what they have created here at Claridge’s since they opened in 2019, gaining accolades along the way under challenging circumstances.”
“Daniel has been a longstanding friend of the hotel for many years and we wish him nothing but continued success as he spearheads this bold new vision,” the statement continued, adding that Davies and Brook would “continue to operate under his direction”.
The hotel is considered the archetype of traditional English luxury, and the management were concerned that a vegan menu might alienate the clientele. “If they turn the restaurant vegan, they will upset thousands of regular guests,” a source told the Daily Mail.
Sharing the news on Instagram, Humm said that his principles were paramount and unaffected by the “mutual announcement” to “go … separate ways” with Claridge’s, saying: “Standing behind this mission, and what we believe in, is most important and is unfortunately not something we can compromise on.”
“The future for me is plant-based… It has never been more clear that the world is changing, and we have to change with it.”
Humm recently attended COP26 in Glasgow, where he reiterated his determination to continue on a plant-based path, sating there that his life’s work was “to make plant-based food delicious, magical and luxurious”, and that plant-based food was “better for our planet and our health”.
