Daniel Humm on reversing Eleven Madison Park's plant-based experiment

Executive overview

After reaching the top of the fine dining world, Daniel Humm went fully plant-based at Eleven Madison Park in 2021 — a creative reset that made history but created real business pressure. The move narrowed the audience, raised labor costs 20%, and made high-margin private events harder to sell.

Four years later, Humm is reintroducing a small number of animal products: fish, shellfish, and the restaurant's signature duck. The cuisine stays rooted in plants, but the goal shifts from purity to hospitality — welcoming every guest, not just those who self-identify as plant-based.

The lesson: radical creative constraints can forge a new culinary language, but a restaurant must be inclusive to survive.

Why Humm went plant-based

• After winning the world's #1 restaurant ranking, he felt creatively stuck — repeating variations on the same dishes
• The pandemic created space to reimagine the restaurant from scratch
• Strict exclusion of animal products forced genuine invention: plant-based butter, almond milk ricotta, cypress-plant "land caviar"
• Travel to India, Japan, and the Middle East opened cuisines he'd never studied
• EMP started its own upstate farm — something that wouldn't have happened otherwise

The backlash and business reality

• The announcement sparked a global debate that "far transcended food" — Humm did not expect this
• Many guests experienced it as a lifestyle or political statement, not a cuisine choice, and felt excluded
• Some longtime patrons, suppliers, and fellow chefs felt alienated
• Revenue dipped; wine sales fell sharply (critical to fine dining margins)
• Private events — a major revenue source — became difficult to sell without a signature roast
• Labor costs rose ~20%: transforming vegetables to a luxury level requires more cooks

The Michelin milestone

• In 2022, EMP became the first purely plant-based restaurant to receive three Michelin stars
• Humm describes the moment as "walking on water" — Michelin had never before awarded three stars to a plant-based kitchen
• The stars validated the creative experiment even as business pressures mounted

The next pivot

• Starting October, EMP will reintegrate a selective set of animal products: fish, shellfish, duck, and some dairy where it becomes the focus of a dish
• ~90% of the menu stays plant-based; desserts and breads will remain largely animal-free
• The Mediterranean diet — mostly plants, small amounts of meat and fish for special occasions — informed the new direction
• The goal: one table that welcomes the cattle rancher and the plant-based diner equally
• Humm frames it as evolution, not retreat: "I have to change to stay the same" (William de Kooning)

On self-doubt and leadership

• Humm admits feeling like "a fraud" as he moved toward the pivot — worried it would be read as weakness
• He distinguishes evolution from reversal: EMP will not return to butter glazes, chicken stock, or demi-glace
• Long-tenured staff have lived through multiple reinventions; newer hires in hospitality understand the guest-feedback driving the change
• His 10-year vision: find a successor, and ensure EMP remains a great restaurant for decades beyond him

The broader argument for fine dining

• Fine dining functions like a Paris runway show — few attend, but the ideas trickle into everyday food culture
• Major restaurants are where chefs are trained; those chefs staff casual restaurants across the industry
• Humm argues food-system decisions should sit with chefs and farmers, not politics