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He's opening a new restaurant in 2026, has a children's book out, and (some) meat is back. It's set to be a busy year for Daniel Humm – but you still won't find butter or cream on the EMP menu.
Celebrating 20 years at the helm of Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm has retained immense status as a chef, but it is change that underpins his success and drives his continual evolution.
Daniel Humm is, by definition, a trendsetter. A leading figure of gastronomy, his New York restaurant, Eleven Madison Park (EMP) was named The World's Best Restaurant in 2017. It has also held on to three Michelin stars since 2012, despite an 18-month closure during the pandemic, from which Humm was to re-open with purely plant-based offerings.
The move had never been done before and, despite enormous scepticism, he retained those three stars in 2022 and beyond. Yet just as vegan restaurants started to explode and gain recognition the world over, Humm decided to reintroduce proteins onto his menu again in 2025.
EMP still has what it refers to as a "celebrated plant-forward approach", but with carefully considered proteins injected in-between. This continual evolution is central to Humm's creative philosophy, with change underpinning everything he does and the only constant he knows.
Humm is gentle, self-effacing and highly articulate. Having grown up in Switzerland, New York has been home for more than two decades, though he admits there was a time he didn't see America as a food destination at all. A trip to San Francisco changed all that, when he visited The French Laundry (The World's Best Restaurant in 2003 and 2004), Chez Panisse and various Napa vineyards.
He says, "I ate sushi for the first time. My mind was blown. I felt, at that point in time, there was an energy and an excitement for our industry that was extraordinary. It was more awake than I felt it was in Europe, and I wanted to be part of that."
Daniel Humm announced in 2025 that certain proteins will be back on the EMP menu
While Eleven Madison Park has been operational for 27 years, it is 20 years since Humm began there. And to celebrate, he has created a menu of showstoppers that have been loved during those two decades, dishes which have made a mark or elevated fine dining to new heights. "I never thought I would have just one job here in New York," he says. "It's wild."
Humm's 20-year Retrospective menu
The Retrospective menu, running from 7-26 January 2026, covers what Humm sees as very "different chapters in our history. There have been many but, if one thing is constant, it is the fact that things do change. If we stopped changing, we would stop being the restaurant that we are."
His infamous carrot tartare, for example, is a dish from 2010 that perfectly exemplifies the ground-breaking creativity for which he is known. "That was an important dish created because, at that time, all the iconic New York City restaurants, like the 21 Club, had a version of the steak tartare."
Although he wasn't exclusively plant-based at that stage, Humm says, "the steak already didn't feel right, even in 2010, so we worked on this dish for a year. We put the meat grinder on the table, and in the beginning, people assumed it would be for steak, and then we came out with a bunch of carrots, which had a fun element of surprise. Of course, now everyone knows what it is for."
The iconic Carrot Tartare, which debuted on the EMP menu in 2012
Other greatest hits on the Retrospective menu include an early dish inspired by San Francisco: a tile fish with citrus and edamame beans and, as a nod to sous vide, he is recreating a dish from 2017 of celery root braised in pig's bladder, which he describes as, "very forward-thinking, but using a traditional technique. This was the first time I felt I created a dish with only two ingredients that would stand up to the level you would expect."
The four fundamentals
Humm says every dish he has ever created follows four fundamentals: "They became like the recipe for future recipes." Though simple in description, they are crucial to all he does.
"Every dish has to be delicious, and it has to be beautiful," he explains. "We're looking for effortless beauty and it has to be creative and something you've never seen before. Finally, there has to be intention behind the dish. It needs to make sense. This has been a big step for us because deliciousness and creativity don't go hand-in-hand; they're often on opposite ends of the spectrum."
The switch to plant-based dining
The Covid-19 pandemic forced the doors of Eleven Madison Park shut, but Humm used the time to transform his workspace into a community kitchen that served 5,000 meals a day to people in need. "It changed me," he muses. "So, to open the same restaurant after that experience didn't feel right. We saw it as an opportunity to do something no one had ever done before."
Every meal at EMP begins with savoury black and white cookies, a playful nod to the classic sweet of New York
The reason behind going plant-based was primarily environmental and he describes those years as "an amazing period of creative development. We were a restaurant known for foie gras so, to think that we would remove it all, including the butter, was pretty radical."
Meat is back on the menu at Eleven Madison Park
Always up for a new challenge, however, Humm noticed that being a vegan restaurant was putting people off walking through his doors – the very word itself extremely polarising.
"[Being vegan] is like a political stand," he says. "It's not about pleasure at all and we are about joy. A thing that felt very expansive creatively started to feel very limiting." Despite the success of the restaurant showing no signs of abating at that time, Humm "felt we were cooking for just one audience. So now, there is a choice. The foundation of the cuisine is totally plant-based, but there are proteins, so we now have people coming in who are meat eaters but who love [plant-based dishes].
"We are winning because we didn't take anything away from the experience before, but we've carefully brought in a few items – and you still won't find any cream or butter."
Clemente Bar
An intimate collaboration between Humm and his close friend, artist Francesco Clemente, the Clemente Bar opened in the autumn of 2024 above the restaurant, in what had been a private dining room. "It's a magical little oasis up there, and, for the first time, the whole restaurant felt complete. This is like a jewel inside the jewel."
Daniel Humm and Francesco Clemente in Clemente Bar [Image credit: Jason Varney]
A huge art fan and friends with those whose pictures hang on the walls, this collaboration with New York-based neo-expressionist artist Clemente helped to add to the welcoming feel. "Obviously, it's not like anyone's home because the room is so grandiose, but everything has a personal story to it and that is felt, I believe, when you walk in," Humm says.
Daniel's Dream
Humm was made the first ever Unesco Goodwill Ambassador for Food Education in 2024 and, after speaking at a Cop27 climate conference in Scotland, he returned home feeling very low. "I felt really down about my generation because we aren't doing enough [about climate change]."
A desire to speak to young people led him to the decision to write a children's book. He approached his friend and children's author, Roda Ahmed, and the result is Daniel's' Dream, a reimagining of Humm's own experience as a young boy.
"I was in art class, and we were told to draw our dreamhouse. I said mine would never fit on the paper and asked for more. The teacher said no, so I drew on the table in protest and was sent home. I just felt my dream was bigger than the paper. My mum and I went to an art supply store and bought this huge roll of paper and, for the next five hours, we were drawing."
His mother, who he clearly adores, told Humm: "'You have to remember there are no rules for dreams.'" Humm had Ahmed in tears when he told her the story and she declared, "that's the book".
Daniel Humm's children's book, Daniel's Dream, is out in January 2026
There is no doubt a metaphor tucked in Daniel's Dream for Humm's entire life and all he has built, but he strongly feels that "so many good things have come from our courage to change and not be afraid of change at the restaurant. I won't lie though; we had to build thick skin because being criticised is hard."
Humm may have developed thick skin, but he clearly reaps immense joy in all he does, both in and out of the kitchen. He has much to look forward to: an upcoming collaboration with Virgilio Martinez of Lima's Central – named The World's Best Restaurant in 2023 – for three nights in February; he is newly married to actress Annabelle Dexter-Jones; and he has a new West Village restaurant slated to open later in 2026.
With so much to celebrate after 20 years at the helm of Eleven Madison Park, his mood is one of happy nostalgia and deep reflection. "I love being a chef and I love being in this industry," he says. "You have to make sure the things you're doing are for the right reasons. And, at the end of the day, if it's in your heart, there can't be anything wrong with that.
Header image credit: Jovani Demetrie
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