Eleven Madison Park goes meat free

Daniel Humm’s award-winning NYC restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, was shuttered for months due to COVID-19 restrictions. The chef and his staff pivoted to feeding the hungry through a partnership with a nonprofit organization. This morning Humm announced that the fine dining establishment would soon return, but with a huge change in the menu: it will no longer serve any meat or fish.

The restaurant, which was voted as the World’s Best Restaurant in 2017 and awarded three Michelin stars, was known for dishes like seared foie gras and honey-glazed duck. The only non-vegan products that will remain on the new menu are milk and honey served with coffee and tea. In a statement on the restaurant’s website, Humm noted that environmental concerns prompted the decision: “We have always operated with sensitivity to the impact we have on our surroundings, but it was becoming ever clearer that the current food system is simply not sustainable, in so many ways,” he wrote.

Humm says that he understands the risk he is taking by converting the restaurant into a meat- and dairy-free zone. He said he has been busy experimenting in the kitchen with things like plant-based creams and butters, fermented foods, and vegetable broths. Eleven Madison Park will join other upscale vegan restaurants like NYC’s Dirt Candy and Los Angeles’s Crossroads Kitchen.