APPETISERS
The Next Chapter When acclaimed chef Daniel Humm announced that his
it is clear that the acclaimed chef’s radical new food
Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park would
philosophy has put the matter of plant-based eating
reopen as a 100% plant-based restaurant, his New York
back on the agenda. Created with the help of chef de
clientele couldn’t help but wonder how the chef would
cuisine Dominique Roy and culinary director Mike
transform the venue’s historically lavish menu – known
Pyers, the menu focuses on a wide variety of ingredients
for its butter-poached lobster tails and lavender-honey
including clay-baked beetroot and kochia seeds and is
glazed duck – into a vegan-friendly one.
the epitome of culinary reinvention. New dishes range
Posting a message on the restaurant’s website
from sunflower bread with a side of non-animal butter,
describing the current food system as “simply not
cucumber tartare with melon, avocado cream and
sustainable” and explaining that the tasting menu
smoked daikon to fried peppers with Swiss chard and
would use “vegetables from the earth and the sea,
blueberry with elderflower.
as well as fruits, legumes, fungi, grains and so much
Eschewing animal products was always going to be a
more”, Humm entered unchartered territory, becoming
risk for a restaurant revered for its meat dishes, but with
one of only two three-star restaurants in the world to
the sustainability of the planet’s food system weighing
entirely eliminate meat, seafood and dairy from its
heavily on his mind, Humm’s break with tradition could
menus. However, with a 15,000-strong waiting list
inspire real change in the luxury dining sector.
© Evan Sung
