The reservation was made a long time ago, because finding a table in this particular restaurant is not an easy task, it requires planning. So, on Saturday afternoon, at 6 o’clock, as they agreed, all 14 entered, sat down at their tables and began to read the fake menus they had brought with them.

They were not the iconic dishes of a three-star Michelin restaurant, not a rich list of expensive wines and spirits, but facts and figures highlighting the problems of intensive farming, the food crisis, inequality and the madness of haute cuisine, where someone pays 200 pounds for food, in while two million people in Britain rely on food banks.

I mention Britain not by chance, because it was there that the protest of 14 Animal Rebellion vegan activists took place, who, after sitting (without food, of course) for two hours in the restaurant of the famous and eccentric chef Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, they left peacefully. The goal, of course, was achieved, their protest became known in the country and abroad.

The Animal Rebellion group is known for various “promotions” of this type. In an attempt to raise public awareness of animal rights and against eating meat and dairy products, they threw red paint into the water of two fountains in Trafalgar Square. More recently, they have entered supermarkets and started pouring milk on the floor, while they themselves have set up “barricades” at McDonald’s distribution points, demanding that the company commit to 100% plant-based products by 2025.

To be honest, I never found such activism to be effective. Of course, there are other ways to inform and raise public awareness. On the other hand, of course, when I saw Gordon Ramsay’s TikTok video of him chasing lambs on the farm, rubbing his hands and yelling “Who’s going to go to the oven first?” I thought good luck!