Midsummer House

Campaign Over: Midsummer House Has Stopped Selling Foie Gras!

Midsummer House is a restaurant located in Cambridge UK. The restaurant itself is a Victorian house situated next to the River Cam, Midsummer Common. The head chef at Midsummer House is Daniel Clifford who started in 1998.

Midsummer House sells diseased meat!

Foie Gras = Liver Disease

Benjamin Zephaniah

“Foie Gras is cruel and inhumane. Forget the fancy name; put simply it is the enlarged liver of a duck or goose, and it should have no place in a civilised society. The process used to produce this so-called ‘delicacy’ commonly involves a barbaric force-feeding process that causes the animals liver to swell painfully. I call on Midsummer House to stop selling this product immediately” - Poet, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah

Sign our petition for a Foie Gras Free Cambridge. Click Here

Midsummer House - The Issues

Latest News

Animal Cruelty

Midsummer House sells Foie Gras a controversial product that many businesses including the major supermarkets have banned. Foie Gras is commonly produced by shoving a pipe down the throat of a duck or goose. This process causes the animal’s liver to swell painfully and many birds die even before getting to slaughter. The process is considered so unethical that it is illegal in the UK and therefore Foie Gras is imported from countries with lower animal welfare standards in this regard.

Despite this high level of animal cruelty Midsummer House continues to sell a product dubbed ‘torture in the tin’ by campaigners.

Continue learning about the Foie Gras issue >>>

Infringing on the Common

Update:Midsummer House have now removed the stones from the public common. This has left muddy marks in its place.

Midsummer House has annoyed people with an interest in protecting Midsummer Common by placing their own supposedly decorative painted stones on the public common. They have also been asked not to cut the grass around the restaurant but the grass has still clearly been mowed shorter than the rest of the common, presumably by Midsummer House.

Midsummer Common has been and still is a public area that the people of Cambridge have access to. It is historically and legally ours to use in its entirety. Yet the grass around Midsummer House clearly gives the impression of being owned by the business.

Bad Food

Due to the overfeeding of birds used for Foie Gras production their livers become diseased. The appropriate technical term for this is ‘hepatic lipidosis’ and is when the liver is in a state of dysfunction and can’t perform properly. To put it simply Midsummer House is selling diseased meat to its customers!

Additionally, someone who has been a customer at the restaurant informed us that the food combinations were odd and the staff seemed to hang around too much. Whilst it is all well and good messing about with flavours, the resulting end product should work and produce perfect combinations of taste in the mouth – especially when one is splashing out for a pricey meal at a place like Midsummer House.

Here’s what the dissatisfied diner had to say: “A place with no atmosphere combined with too many hovering waiters and overly rich food with odd flavour combinations.”

Employment Practice

While campaigners were protesting outside Midsummer House they were approached by a council worker who stated that his son had applied for a job as a dishwasher at the restaurant. It was alleged that they took him on for a trial and didn’t pay him or even offer him something to eat!

Uncivilised

Midsummer House may portray themselves as civilised, however on one occasion staff pulled their trousers down at protesters from a window on the second floor. On another, a staff member broke a protester’s megaphone and aimed a kick towards him. Read the full account here.

Contact Them

Midsummer House and The Headley restaurant are Crown Group Members, both of which sell Foie Gras

The following is a list of Crown Group e-mail addresses, as well as Crown Group businesses e-mails, please contact The Crown Group (in a lawful manner) and ask that the Crown Group implement a Foie Gras free policy.

mail@crowngroup.co.uk, enquiries@crowngroup.co.uk, recruitment@crowngroup.co.uk, media@crowngroup.co.uk, enquiries@midsummerhouse.co.uk , enquiries@theheadley.co.uk, enquires@venuereservations.co.uk, enquiries@seasonedevent.co.uk, enquiries@look-digital.co.uk, enquiries@kudoshospitality.co.uk, enquiries@flyingchef.co.uk, enquires@piggotts.co.uk, enquires@missingingredients.com, enquiries@eventhireonline.co.uk, enquiries@job-2-go.co.uk, enquiries@creativeworkhouse.com, enquiries@vipattention.co.uk, enquiries@leisurextra.co.uk, enquiries@casamontecristo.co.uk

Click to continue to the full Crown Group ‘Address Book’ including the phone number for Midsummer House >>>>

News

Midsummer House Goes Foie Gras Free!

Cambridge Evening News and the national newspaper The Independent has reported that Midsummer House has taken Foie Gras off their menu.

Midsummer House – News Coverage and Demo Report

On Saturday campaigners were again outside Midsummer House for their regular lunchtime demo. The campaigners were glad to learn that the Cambridge Evening News had covered their Valentines Day demo. The report explained that the campaigners held placards stating ‘Foie Gras = Diseased Liver’ among other statements. The quote from the Midsummer House manager did not seek to justify the Foie Gras production, instead talking about ‘freedom of choice’ and the like. Unfortunately the animals don’t get this choice!

Midsummer House – Valentines Protest

While Midsummer House’s customers may have been celebrating Valentines Day, activists held a demo speaking out for the ducks and geese who don’t get the chance to relax and enjoy a free life like we and they do. For animals across the world Valentines Day is just another day of abuse and exploitation.

Thugs

Midsummer House civilised? No it’s just Midsummer McDonalds when it comes down to it!