The New York-based chef and restaurateur sits down with 50 Best to talk about the progression to plant-based, creating an entirely new pantry and how to manage success
Daniel Humm has gone from endurance athlete to endurance chef. Over the years, he’s navigated extreme highs and lows, from being named the The World's Best Restaurant to facing bankruptcy during the pandemic, transformed Eleven Madison Park (EMP) into a community kitchen, co-founded Rethink Food, re-launched EMP as entirely plant-based in 2021, and celebrated in 2022 as it was the first plant-based restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars. He’s now looking to the future, with Bar Clemente launching this fall, and a new West Village restaurant opening in 2025. As part of #50BestTalks at The World’s 50 Best Restaurant 2024 event programme in Las Vegas, Humm discussed evolution, process, inspiration and facing criticism.
Why did you decide to make Eleven Madison Park plant-based?
It was really about the language of food, the power it holds and the difference it can make. Our industry is changing in a beautiful way. And I always say, ‘We can't be perfect on any level’, but if every restaurant does something right, then these little changes together can become a big change. When it was time to reopen the restaurant, it was clear that from a creative place we needed to push towards plant-based eating, I think we exhausted the different versions of lobster and duck, and I don't think there was anything else to pursue. That's why we felt like we had a responsibility by being given this voice in our industry.
What were the challenges involved?
It was quite radical to change because our restaurant was famous for duck and lobster and all these things. It was a novel idea. But then when we got into the kitchen, we definitely felt like, ‘Oh my god, where do we even start?’ Before we even created dishes, we created our pantry. We were thinking, ‘Ok, what brings the creaminess? What is our new butter? What are our new milks? What are the stocks made of? What is [the equivalent of] the fish sauce that we used to use? What are all these things?’ So that process was really interesting and for the first eight months, we slowly recreated our pantry. And then we got into cooking dishes.
But even then, the process of creating a dish was still very much stuck where we were before. We tried to recreate the meals that we had before, but without using animal products. The reality was: we felt like we would limit ourselves by using fewer ingredients. Now I feel like we were limited before because we were working in a system of what a meal should look like… and in a way we just ended up cooking condiments for the proteins. But the more we've got comfortable on this new journey, the more we've been able to break free from those rules.
Also, where we're looking, in terms of taking inspiration, has completely changed. We've been travelling a lot in Japan and India and in the Middle East, where vegetables have long been celebrated in a different way. So that work has been really, really exciting… By receiving this incredible award in 2017 [being named The World’s Best Restaurant], I feel like we very much found that North Star again, to create these fully plant-based meals.
Daniel Humm was honest about the highs and lows he's faced during his career
You said you no longer even think about meat. Was there one particular ‘hallelujah’ moment when you just stopped thinking about it?
I think it just happened naturally. I'm not a full vegetarian, and I still very much enjoy the creations of other chefs. But in my day to day, I pretty much eat a plant-based diet. And I think that just changes the things you're craving. And then the things you want to prepare. We also started a farm because we thought it was essential to have our own [products], so we started one in upstate New York, where we get to grow things we usually couldn't get access to.
Is there a set of ingredients that are unsung heroes?
I've been thinking a lot about the question, ‘What is luxury?’ In this room in particular [at 50BestTalks], our restaurants are far beyond just providing meals – we are providing experiences. How is there a hierarchy in ingredients? To me, that really doesn't make sense. It's almost like if for a painter, the red would be much more valuable than the green or the blue. It's just not like that. People are very stuck on this, even when it comes to price. They're stuck on what they're willing to pay. But it's kind of silly, because I think what people are paying for in restaurants like ours is an experience. I really try to think about every ingredient having the same importance. And in fact, the magic of cooking really comes into play when a chef creates something with something very humble. It's usually the very humble cuts – cuts that some people don't even use – that become these magical things.
At #50BestTalks in Las Vegas, the audience sampled a celtuce cocktail given to guests on arrival at EMP
Would you say you have a signature dish at the new EMP?
I don't think we are really striving to create signature dishes. We change the menu every three months, in its entirety. There are a few things we're using regularly. We're using the seed from the Cypress tree called tonburi. In the process, I became very fascinated with the Shojin cuisine – the Zen Buddhist cuisine – and we worked with a Zen Buddhist monk on this journey. His family harvest the seeds in Japan. Most ingredients we use are local, but this ingredient isn't. We actually do get it from Japan. That’s quite special, and I haven't really seen it in a lot of restaurants before. We're using celtuce when we can. We grow sunflowers, but we harvest them before they open up, so they're still closed, almost like a baby artichoke. In the summertime, we always have these baby sunflowers. There are things we return to seasonally for sure.
Can you tell us a bit more about your creative process?
We get inspiration from our travels and from different cuisines. I also draw a lot. The pandemic was a lesson on ideas… we were a very small group of people who started talking. And we didn't really let a lot of people into the conversation. Even the greatest ideas early on are very fragile, and people are always going to tell you, ‘It's not going to work.’ But during the pandemic, there was no one there to say that, so we started working. And by the time we let people in, the idea already had roots.
Then we're getting ready for the reopening and we're hiring more people: Eleven Madison Park has 200 employees. We're starting to realise that this isn't just an artistic endeavour; this is our livelihood and this has to work. There were definitely nights where I couldn't sleep and I was really scared about whether this could actually work.
When we did re-open, I got crazy letters from meat suppliers saying that this will never work and when I need their meat again, they’ll never deliver to me. And then we got some very, very brutal reviews and write-ups… In the first year or so, if I would have known how hard this would be, I would have never done this! But I do believe that we need to change. I believe that we all know this: we need to reduce the consumption of meat.
Daniel Humm will be opening a new bar later in 2024 and a new restaurant in the West Village in 2025
You’ve been very honest about the high and low moments of your career. Would you have any advice to others on dealing with triumph and adversity?
One of the most important things is to constantly check yourself on why you're doing something… Eleven Madison Park has gone through so many changes. And part of our DNA is change. If we stop changing, we stop being Eleven Madison Park. But it hurts when you get criticised… We disengaged with media for a while, and we just really focused on every table and on every guest that came into the restaurant. And we made them our ambassadors.
What’s next for you and EMP?
We have an Eleven Madison Park cookbook coming out in October. We had a photographer follow us for three years and take behind-the-scenes photos. It’s more raw, a little bit more real. Then we have [included] all the recipes we've created in the last three years. And we're opening a new bar this fall [Bar Clemente]. And we've just signed a lease for a new space in New York City to open a new restaurant [a 5,000-square-foot location at 435 Hudson Street in the West Village which will be launching in 2025].
The list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna was announced at a live awards ceremony on Wednesday 5 June from Las Vegas. To stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube, and sign up to our newsletter.
