‘Death threats’ force pub to remove foie gras from menu

Mark Dixon, chef-owner of the King's Arms, Fleggburgh, Great Yarmouth, had listed the dish – which is made from force-fed ducks or geese – on the pub's Valentine's Day tasting menu.

But after members of staff began to receive threats over the phone, Dixon said he decided to remove the dish to prevent further harassment.

He told the Publican's Morning Advertiser​: "From Monday morning (8 February), our phone lines at the pub were ringing non-stop. As soon as we picked up one call it would be harassment and abuse, we'd pick up the next call and it would be the same. It went on like that for almost 24 hours.

'Shove tubes down my throat like they do to geese'​

"They were calling me vile, saying that they were going to come down and shove tubes down my throat like they do to geese.

"I wasn't at the pub when it all kicked off so all the waitresses were picking up the calls and being told 'how can you work with him? You're disgusting, you're vile, inhumane' – they said people who were associated with the business deserved to die as well."

One waitress had been reduced to tears by the callers, he said adding that despite the abuse, the local community had rallied round the business and that the pub had probably picked up more customers and friends in the long run.

A large amount of one-star reviews had been left on the pub's TripAdvisor profile and Facebook account.

Dixon discovered a Facebook group where the 'activists' were discussing posting the negative reviews and booking tables they would not turn up for. 

One poster even discussed the idea of pouring cement powder down one of the man holes near the pub.

"The police have been really good and come down every day to make sure we're OK," he added.

Foie gras, translated from French as 'fat liver', is currently illegal to manufacture in the UK and is often imported from France or various other European countries that still allow its production.

Despite its reputation as a delicacy, it is considered by many to be unethical due to the methods of production – the animals are force-fed more food than they would normally consume to deposit large amounts of fat in their livers, producing the consistency and taste the ingredient is known for.

Delicacy​

Dixon added: "I'm not a cruel person. It's a delicacy and I enjoy the flavour of it but I'm not preaching to anyone that they should eat it – it's not something I get in every day of the week.

"What I put on the menu is nothing to do with the staff – [the callers] have taken things to another level – they're the ones who seem to be doing the unlawful things here."

The event said something about the dangerous effect social media can have on small businesses, he said.

"Without the local community, we would have gone down in the pecking order. They know what they're doing."