Perth celebrity chef John Mountain sues vegan activist Tash Peterson over protests against his Fyre restaurant

A celebrity chef is suing a vegan activist for six figures, claiming she trashed his business online and harassed his diners during angry protests.

Former British chef John Mountain, owner of Fyre Restaurant in Perth, is suing celebrity protester Tash Peterson for defamation, escalating their months-long feud.

Countless social media posts combined with in-person demonstrations at his restaurant have left Mr. Mountain with no other choice. he told A Current Affair.

“I get death threats and horrible emails all the time on a daily basis, and it’s just too much,” Mr. Mountain said.

Mr Mountain has lived in Australia for seven years after arriving from Britain, where he was a celebrity chef who shared an agent with kitchen superstar Jamie Oliver. He also played in cooking shows the Great British Menu and Chef Race UK v US.

A bitter feud broke out between Mr Mountain and the controversial activist and OnlyFans star after the chef banned all vegans from his restaurant when someone gave him a negative review due to the lack of variety in his restaurant.

Peterson has criticized Mr Mountain online and in person after a feud broke out between the two when the chef banned all vegan dinners at his restaurant

Since the ban, Mr Mountain has been granted two restraining orders preventing Peterson from mentioning his name, company or anyone associated with him online, but he says this has not stopped her followers online.

‘It’s not directly from her that I’m getting into trouble. It comes from all those hundreds of thousands of people looking at her posts,” Mr. Mountain told ACA.

To prove his point, the celebrity chef has launched a new Instagram account’only fire fans‘ to draw attention to the abuse he has to deal with on a daily basis.

Mr. Mountain doesn’t blur out the names of people who message him or the language they use, and posting them helps him cope, he says.

“I hate you and your disgusting behavior,” one said.

‘Attacking a young girl and physically touching her is disgusting. Posing with dead animals is disgusting. Karma will get you,” said another in one message.

“We may have to slaughter you on the spot,” a third threatened.

Peterson herself can no longer participate in the attack after taking over the retraining orders.

Her actions have seen her banned from all licensed venues in Western Australia for the next year, but Mr Mountain believes the ban is not ‘strict’ enough.

“It has not been fair that the punishment has never been equal to the crime,” he claimed.

“She’s gotten away with minor infractions, minor slaps on the wrist, a few hundred here, five hundred dollars there, she doesn’t care. So I sued her for full defamation (because) it caused me enormous suffering,” he added on ACA.

Police charged Peterson with trespassing, remaining near a licensed premises and disorderly conduct in a public place after he clashed with the chef for a second time outside his Perth restaurant, Fyre, on July 8.

During the demonstration, chaos broke out inside and outside the restaurant.

As customers dined inside, activists flooded the venue, playing audio of pigs squealing through a megaphone.

In a video posted to Instagram, Ms. Peterson enters the restaurant and shouts that “the sounds you’re hearing right now are pigs screaming for their lives in carbon dioxide gas champers, they’re burning from the inside out.”

“You are responsible for their murder if you are not vegan and their blood is on your hands,” she said.

Ms. Peterson and Mr. Mountain faced each other during the collision.

Following the collision, the restaurant announced on Thursday evening that Ms Peterson and her boyfriend were now legally prohibited from entering the premises.

Mr Mountain and Peterson have been embroiled in an ongoing dispute after his restaurant banned vegans

Since the controversy broke out, Mr Mountain claims staffers have left him because it was all too much to handle.

The controversy began after a vegan restaurant left a one-star review discussing his “deficiencies as a chef,” which Mr. Mountain took personally, causing him to ban anyone identifying as vegan from the internet. Facebook.

‘Unfortunately all vegans have now been banned from Fyre due to mental health reasons. We thank you for your understanding. xx,” he wrote in June.

Since Peterson became involved, Mr. Mountain has said she is “obsessed” with him and just wants attention.

When asked by ACA if the celebrity chef was just giving the protester what she wanted, Mr. Mountain said he was just trying to teach her a lesson.

“If she gets a significant fine, and I’m looking at six figures, she’ll think twice about getting fined that amount,” he said.

Peterson now appears in court over her July 8 protests and Mr Mountain vows to open steak-only diners, telling ACA he is eyeing locations on Australia’s east coast.