The top chef at Claridge’s hotel in London wanted to go all vegan. Meat stayed and he didn’t.

But Britain’s vegan embrace — in the country of fish and chips and Beefeater ceremonial guards at the Tower of London — has gotten a cold shoulder at London’s renowned Claridge’s hotel. Management decided to part ways with star chef Daniel Humm after he declared his new ambitions for an all-vegan menu at the five-star hotel’s flagship restaurant, Davies and Brook.

“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 in London,” the hotel’s statement read. “However, this is not the path we wish to follow here at Claridge’s.”

Humm, who has won worldwide accolades, had already decided he’d go all vegan at his three-Michelin-star Manhattan restaurant, Eleven Madison Park. That means goodbye to its popular, and pricey, tasting menu that includes sea urchin, duck and suckling pig.

His plans for Davies and Brook would have dumped a roughly $214 tasting menu that includes caviar and honey and lavender glazed dry-aged duck.

Food website Eater in May published that of all of the 132 global restaurants with three Michelin stars, none are vegan. Humm began serving his new meatless menu in New York City in June, which was met with some joy and some disappointment.

The chef released a statement of his own, alluding to the past 18 months of the pandemic which he has said has steered the decision-making on the future of his food vision. He has called out the unsustainability and inequality inherent in current global food systems, and told the New York Times that “our idea of what luxury is had to change.”

“It has never been more clear that the world is changing, and we have to change with it,” he wrote Friday in his departure announcement from Davies and Brook. “The future for me is plant-based.”

He said that the most important thing is standing behind his mission and beliefs — “and is unfortunately not something we can compromise on.”

Read more:

Plant-based diet’s health benefits play big role in its popularity during pandemic

Vegan barbecue is carving out a place in traditional meat-smoking regions

How a high-powered lawyer became a TikTok superstar: Meet the Korean Vegan